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ORC Resource Number #7718
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Impact of a Superstar
Promising Practice
PROFESSIONAL COMMENTARY

Students plot the data from two NBA teams during the 2004-05 season. In particular, students look at the total points and minutes played by each of the starters on the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons. The data suggest that Laker Kobe Bryant is an outlier—he scores more points per minute than his teammates. Through further investigation, students discover that Piston Ben Wallace is also an outlier, because he scores fewer points per minute than his teammates. They see how the line of best fit changes as outliers are removed form the data set. A spreadsheet of data, an activity sheet, discussion questions, a lesson extension, and suggestions for assessment are included. (author/sw)

CAREER APPLICATION

Career-technical teachers can use this lesson as is or with modifications for specific career field teaching. The lesson provides a statistical application for a real-life situation involving basketball. Students use technology tools to plot data, identify lines of best fit, and compare lines of best fit when elements are removed from the data for two basketball teams. The lesson can be modified to apply to any data set including data from other sports such as NASCAR. The lesson contains everything needed for teaching the application's important statistical content. (jrs)

OHIO STANDARDS
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Mathematics Academic Content Standards
Data Analysis and Probability Standard
NATIONAL STANDARDS
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Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
Data Analysis and Probability Standard
RESOURCE TYPE
Instructional Resource
PRACTICE LEVEL
Promising Practice
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
Grades 9–12
CAREER FIELDS
General Career Skills
TOPICS
Mathematics --
Connections, applications;
Statistics;
Data analysis;
Data display;
FOUND IN
KEYWORDS
line of best fit;
outlier;
applet
Publisher: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Author: Samuel E. Zordak