NBA and Discovery Education Come Together to Get Students Excited About Math #dyscalculia

A middle school in Washington D.C. recently hosted a Jr. NBA clinic that joined math and basketball through the medium of technology. Sixth and seventh graders at John Hayden Johnson Middle School got to work with such past and current basketball stars as Bob Lanier and Daniel Ochefu through a workshop organized by Discovery Education, an organization that offers professional development and digital technology to public schools.

Students also got a chance to use the NBA statistics tool — which functions much like a Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet — to determine who was the best at shooting free throws on the Washington Mystics, by calculating percentages.
~ Meghan Bogardus Cortez

Basketball and geometry correlates and is an inventive way to approach math.

At the workshop students got to play basketball with the pros and learn how geometry is key to the game. Students also used the statistics tool of the NBA to study effective free throwing. Discovery Education is passionate to bring technological tools to the study of math, and training students on statistical software was a key piece of the workshop.

Key Takeaways:

1
Famous athletes found themselves helping a group of students with math.
2
The teachers and athletes believe this will spur their want to learn.
3
The athletes not only helped but also made significant donations to their further learning.