Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dan Flockhart, M.Ed., is a former middle school math teacher who incorporated fantasy sports into his math curriculum. He presents his innovative method of teaching at conventions and maintains a Web site for the series at http://www.fantasysportsmath.com.

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"Flockhart's books make math fun again. Teachers, students, and parents will love this program."
— Jeffrey R. Thomas, founder and CEO, SportsBuff.com; president, Fantasy Sports Trade Association

This workbook is designed to be used in conjunction with Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics: A Resource Guide for Teachers and Parents. The games and activities in Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics were created to get you excited about learning and practicing math, even if you are not a big sports fan.

Here's how it works. You will create a Fantasy Basketball team by picking real-life players, following your players' statistics, and calculating your teams' total points using one of the equations your teacher provides. In addition to the basic Fantasy Basketball game, your workbook contains worksheets for extra practice on 46 different math concepts.

So join the winning math team with Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics!

Aus dem Klappentext

"Flockhart's books make math fun again. Teachers, students, and parents will love this program."
— Jeffrey R. Thomas, founder and CEO, SportsBuff.com; president, Fantasy Sports Trade Association

This workbook is designed to be used in conjunction with Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics: A Resource Guide for Teachers and Parents. The games and activities in Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics were created to get you excited about learning and practicing math, even if you are not a big sports fan.

Here's how it works. You will create a Fantasy Basketball team by picking real-life players, following your players' statistics, and calculating your teams' total points using one of the equations your teacher provides. In addition to the basic Fantasy Basketball game, your workbook contains worksheets for extra practice on 46 different math concepts.

So join the winning math team with Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics!

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Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

HANDOUT 1 Description and Rules

Fantasy Basketball and Mathematics is a game in which you will draft and manage your own team of players from men's or women's professional, college, or high school basketball teams. Players earn points for rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, and points scored. Players lose points for fouls and turnovers. Each week, you will find the sum of the points earned by your players. The object of the game is to accumulate the highest number of points.

How to Select Players

There are two options for selecting players. Your teacher will decide which option your class will use.

Option 1: Permanent Teams with Salary Cap. You have a salary cap of $25,000,000. This is the total amount you can spend on player values. Select eight professional players for the positions listed in Table 1. Your instructor will provide you with a list of players and their costs. It is not possible to select college or high school players with this option because player values are not accessible for college and high school players. Be aware that the Women's National Basketball Association season runs from June to September, which means that professional female players can be selected only by students who are in summer school. You may select a player even if another student has chosen the same one. Table 1 lists the number of players to be selected at each position as well as the number of players in a starting lineup for each position.

Option 2: Different Teams Each Week. Each week, you will select one team. For example, if you live in Boston, you may decide to select your hometown professional team for the first week of the game. Perhaps you will choose college and high school teams from the Boston area for the second and third weeks, respectively. However, you will no longer be allowed to choose those teams in later weeks because each team can be selected only once by each student during the course of the game. However, other students are allowed to select those same teams, as long as each student selects a particular team only once during the course of the game. Consequently, two or more students can choose the same team in the same week. Unlike in option 1, you will compute points using team statistics rather than individual statistics. For example, if your team gets a total of 37 rebounds in a game, that number would be used to compute points.

If you use option 1 to select players, your roster of players will remain the same for the length of the game (unless you make a trade, which is explained in the next section, or if a player is declared injured and out for the season). If you use option 2, your players will change from week to week.

Trades

You may trade players with your classmates if you selected players using option 1. Trades do not have to be position for position; for example, you could trade a center for a forward. However, you should be able to field a full starting lineup each week. If you make a trade, it is important that you make the necessary changes to your fantasy team roster. Salary cap numbers do not apply to trades.

Injuries

If you cannot locate a player's name in the box scores, he or she is probably injured. If this occurs, the player's score is counted as zero. If a player is declared out for the year and if you used option 1 to select players, you may use the portion of the salary cap you spent on that player to purchase another player at the same position. A list of injured players can be found in newspapers as well as online at www.fantasysportsmath.com or on other sports Web sites.

HANDOUT 2 Fantasy Team Roster

Name of Fantasy Team: Team Owner:

HANDOUT 3 How to Read Box Scores

Box scores are written in several formats, but they all convey the same basic information. A fabricated box score is shown in Table 1. The statistics you will use are highlighted in bold and include rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, blocked shots, personal fouls, and points scored.

HANDOUT 4 How to Collect Data

Each week, you will use newspapers or online resources to collect data from one game in which each of your players in your starting lineup participated. You can choose the game that produced the best statistics for each player. Accessing data online is the quickest and easiest method. Statistics are also archived online so that you can still collect data if you have missed a week or two. To locate statistics online at www.fantasysportsmath.com, use the following steps:

a. Click the "Get Basketball Stats" link.

b. On the following page, use the calendar to select any day from the previous week.

c. Find a team one of your players participated in and click on the box score for that game. You can find the game during the previous week in which each of your players produced the best statistics.

HANDOUT 5 How to Compute Points

Table 1 lists the default scoring system, which includes two methods for computing points earned by your players. Your teacher will choose one of these methods for you to use and may have you compute points using additional scoring systems as well. The default scoring system can be used each week to determine the ranking of students' teams in the game. The default scoring system was designed so that you can plot the weekly points earned by your players to precise numerical values on stacked-bar and multiple-line graphs. This is explained later.

Table 2 lists the Huskies, a sample team that is used throughout this book. All players on the Huskies are from the box score in Handout 3. If you use option 1, all players on a team will not usually be found in the same box score because you will normally select players from several teams.

Let's use the advanced method to compute the points earned by Hal Jackson, who scored 17 points. Players earn 1/36 point for each set of 5 points scored. Points are not earned above multiples of five, so we round Jackson's 17 points down to the nearest multiple of five, which is 15. Since there are three fives in 15 and players earn 1/36 point for each set of five points, Jackson earned 3/36 point. This process is repeated with rebounds as well as turnovers/ personal fouls; points are earned for each set of five. With respect to assists/steals and blocked shots, points are earned for each set of three, so we round down to the nearest multiple of three before dividing by three.

The points earned by individual players can be computed via two different methods: one uses algebra, while the other method does not. If you use both approaches to compute points, you can verify your results.

Tables 3 and 4 provide examples of how to compute points using the advanced method and the basic method, respectively.

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