Free-Throw: Plan-A-Project

Introduction - This project will show how I will use telecollaboration to teach 6th-8th graders about probability and statistics. Here are the list things that I need to provide in order for this project to succeed. So below is the plan in an unordered list

  1. Title: The Free-Throw Project
  2. Name: Christopher W. Oxford
  3. Organization: Howard County Public Schools
  4. E-mail: coxford@hcpss.org
  5. Project Summary: This project will apply probability and statistics as we keep track of students participating in a free-throw competition. The student will shoot 20 free-throws and the students will keep track of the ratio between how many made to how many attempted. We will create an average and make comparisons to the average to create an experimental probability. We will start small and in school then work our way out to local, state, national, and hopefully world.
  6. Participants
    1. Grades Targeted Sixth through eighth grade
    2. Number of Classes/Participants In its initial stage I would like to focus this on my classroom only then moving out as we feel comfortable about sharing this project. The expected time of this occurring will be 3-5 years.
    3. Locations: In classroom to start, then working its way out as the project progresses.
    4. Special Characteristics: No special characteristics, however it would be geared towards a classroom with a lot of students who fit the bodily/kinesthetic intelligence.
    5. Recruiting: Currently I am looking at the following ways to recruit:
      1. Math Forum- Drexel University's Math Teacher Talk Forums.
      2. My Home Page - Use of my homepage as advertising.
      3. Workshop and Presentation - The use of workshops and presentation will be used as kind of a sounding point to get my information across.
      4. The use of other colleagues in the school would probably be used before I make this through the internet.
      5. Would appreciate any other suggestions that would be used to recruit teachers. Meeting, Forums, Conventions, etc.
    6. Posting Dates- I have decided not to make the posting for my project until I feel comfortable enough to make this global. My project is going to start in the classroom before we make it go global.
    7. Deadline: As of right now the project is open annually but, would like the data by April in order to give time to calculate and post.
  7. Contact Person
    1. Coordinator - Christopher Oxford
    2. E-mail: coxford@hcpss.org
    3. Web Page: http://web.hcpss.org/~coxford
    4. Organization: Howard County Public Schools
    5. Phone: (410) 880-5840
    6. Postal Mail 9151 Vollmerhausen Road, Jessup, MD 20794
  8. Objectives of the Lessons
    1. Outcomes:  At the end of the project
      1. Each class will have: a set of raw, real world data that they can use on different statistical plots, such as scatter and box plots.
      2. Each student will have:  an experience of being a real world data set as oppose to doing worksheets of them.
      3. Each instructor will have:  a lesson in doing statistical plots
    2. Skills Encouraged:
      1. Mathematics:
        1. Students will use raw data to display a box-plot of the data of the free-throw percentage for their class, their school, the state, the nation and the world.
        2. Students will use their displays to make comparisons of the data.
        3. Students will use their raw data to calculate measures of central tendency as well as the five number summary for the creation of a box-whisker plot
        4. Students will participate in the appropriate creation of data.
      2. Science
        1. Students will use appropriate methods in observing an event and collecting data in a experiment.
  9. Resources Needed
    1. Telecommunications
      1. An e-mail account.
      2. A web enabled browser.
    2. Hardware
      1. A computer
      2. Net access
      3. TI-83plus calculator (optional)
    3. Software
      1. Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet and/or statistical package
  10. Activities
    1. Observation
      1. The group will observe students shooting from a regulation (15 feet) from the rim.
      2. The group will observe students collecting data appropriately. The recorder of the group will record with a circle for each attempt. A filled-in circle for made, and an empty circle for miss.
      3. The group will observe students to organize the data appropriately.
    2. Discussion/Analysis
      1. Pre-Activity - Questions to ask the students.
        1. Do you think the average person in the world would make 50% of their free throws?
        2. What type of experiment do you think you can do in order to answer the above questions?
        3. What do you think would be the appropriate statistical plot to use to find out the answer to the above question? Explain why?
    3. Creation/Synthesis - Students will be in charge of the creation of the experiment. The teacher's role is to make sure they have the following categories for their experiment: Free-throws Attempted, Free-throws-made, percentage = (Free-throws made/Free-throws attempted)x100, and work area.
    4. Exchange - The teacher will collect the information, and send the results to the head of the project. The head of the project will create a centralize database with all the data needed for the final closing questions.
    5. Evaluation - Teachers involved will grade the students on the data given. See Evaluating Student Outcomes.
  11. Time Frame
    1. Time Frame: The Howard County Curriculum has statistics being done around the third quarter time frame. Late January to Mid April.
      1. Start: To be determined when appropriate.
      2. End: The project will take four days to complete.
    2. Schedule of Activities
      1. Day 1
        1. Have the students create the plan and charts to perform the experiments.
      2. Day 2
        1. Make sure to have the courts reserved for that day.
        2. Perform the experiment collect data.
      3. Day 3
        1. Evaluate the data.
        2. Send the averages online
      4. Day 4
        1. Check back on site to find raw data.
        2. Analyze data by creating boxplots and answering questions
  12. Evaluating Student Outcomes
    1. Outcomes:
      1. Each class will have: a set of raw, real world data that they can use on different statistical plots, such as scatter and box plots.
      2. Each student will have: an experience of being a real world data set as oppose to doing worksheets of them.
      3. Each instructor will have: a lesson in doing statistical plots
    2. Skills Encouraged:
      1. Mathematics:
        1. Students will use raw data to display a box-plot of the data of the free-throw percentage for their class, their school, the state, the nation and the world.
        2. Students will use their displays to make comparisons of the data.
        3. Students will use their raw data to calculate measures of central tendency as well as the five number summary for the creation of a box-whisker plot
        4. Students will participate in the appropriate creation of data.
      2. Science
        1. Students will use appropriate methods in observing an event and collecting data in a experiment.
      3. Criteria: A rubric will be created to grade students on what they have done with this project.
  13. Class Management Strategies
    1. Observation: You may want to assign students into groups of three that rotate. Have one student do the shooter, another student the data collector, and the other the “rebounder” of the shot.
    2. Creation: Have students create their own data chart and report their data on a bigger data chart.
    3. Exchange: Once I have started the website the students then can share the data by entering in the data then use the updated data to perform their different plots.
  14. Project Evaluation
    1. By Whom: By the teachers who work on this project
    2. Format: Done through a survey of the site.
    3. Timing: End of the project.
    4. Evaluation Format: Survey
  15. How to register
    1. Where: On a website to be created.
    2. When: Between January and April
    3. Deadline: April 30
    4. Information to Include: The mean free-throw percentage for the class.

Created by: Christopher W. Oxford

E-mail:coxford@hcpss.org