This year, secondary school students are being introduced to a first-year distance learning class that engagingly introduces statistics, especially for those with a nose for professional sports. The Sports Analytics class is geared towards the exploration of sports analytics and the role that statistics plays in evaluating a team or player in their respective sports. Whether it is the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), or beyond – it offers an interesting take on how math makes an impact on today’s professional sports landscape.
The course utilizes a variety of topics, strategies, and calculations found in core statistics courses but brings in how teams or players are evaluated in the course of a career or how they are predicted to perform in future seasons.
“The interesting thing with statistics is that it plays a role in many industries and definitely within the world of sports,” shared BKW Secondary School math teacher Mr. Morin. “Our main priority is allowing students to understand the basic principle of statistics, but adding the athletic component allows them to experience its impact in something they are interested in. It’s been great reviewing different scenarios in how statistics plays a role in sports-related decisions.”
The class currently includes nine students from BKW and two additional students from Maple Hill Jr./Sr. High School. Students are learning to turn their focus to how statistics plays a role in concepts that are frequently debated online or on sports television programming, from the impact of the designated hitter in baseball to the effect of home-field advantage in pro sports to how a player’s performance differs from the regular season to the playoffs.
Throughout our lifetime, we will experience statistics. It could be how we shop, search for items, or process the success of our favorite teams or athletes. At BKW, statistics is being introduced, while putting a twist on traditional methods of learning mathematics.
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