Submitted by Robin
While we are studying converting fractions to decimals to percents (or during March Madness for a review), I wad up a paper “ball.” I then put a small box on a table at the front of my classroom (a garbage can works great). Students take turns (everyone takes a turn) shooting the “ball” into the “basket.” We keep track of the shooting fractions (shots made over shots attempted), and convert each to a decimal and then a percent.
We discuss who in the “real world” would care about shooting percentages. We compete from one class period to the next to see which class can get the best ending percentage for the “bragging rights.” The students love this game, and do very well with the percentages.
Later, we use this data set to find the mean, median, mode and range of the shooting results.