Fun March Madness Math Ideas & Activities
I am always on the lookout for ways to incorporate real-world events into math resources. The NCAA March Madness basketball tournaments are a perfect way to do this. Not only are many students already following the tournament but they will be delighted to see the tournament included in math class!
Unfortunately, most people only follow the men’s tournament. Recently, however, many people are closely following women’s college basketball, specifically the Iowa Hawkeyes. The Hawkeyes have a player named Caitlin Clark who has broken many NCAA records this season and sold out most games. I hope you consider having your students look at both the men’s and women’s tournaments with the following ideas.
Here are 8 fun and engaging ideas on how to incorporate the March Madness tournaments into your math class in a way that all students will love! You can also grab my no-prep March Madness math pack that includes some of the ideas below and more all ready to use!
1. Complete a Class Bracket: Have your students work together to complete a bracket and display them against other math classes or have your students do their own or even work with a partner. Students can score points based on each winning team they correctly pick. You can find the brackets on NCAA website after March 17th, 2024.
2. Watch this Impossible Odds Video: I love how this video breaks down how no one will ever pick all teams in a March Madness tournament bracket correctly!
3. Do a Non-Basketball Bracket (favorite snacks or candy or favorite movie). Have your class vote between each option and whichever has the most votes wins that round!
4. Look at the Stats Behind a Tournament Team Close to Your School. Have students calculate the win-loss percentages or look up the top-scoring players and average points scored.
5. Create Team Pennants: Have students choose a team from the tournament to cheer on and create a pennant with the school colors, mascot, and any other stats you want them to include. This makes for a fun and EASY way to decorate your classroom for the tournament!
6. Have Students Create Trading Cards: They could either do a card for a player or a team. Another way to add some fun decorations to your classroom.
7. Basketball Math Review Game: Have students work in teams to solve a mixed review of problems and for everyone that is correct they can shoot a “basket” (using a trash can and rolled up paper). This works well with a set of task cards.
8. Look at Men’s and Women’s Tournament History: Have students anazlye data found on the website, specifically looking at any teams that have won a championship more than once.
Looking for a no-prep way to incorporate March Madness? Don’t forget to check out my March Madness Math resource that includes 5 different math activities and worksheets looking at both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
