In their tiny classroom, walls dotted with math posters and warm-up exercises, students at Bay Cove Academy in the Boston suburbs spent the first week of school learning Football 101. “There were some kids who didn’t even know what a quarterback was,” says math teacher Ed Summers.
Soon, though, they tackled the basics and moved up — to the Fantasy Leagues.
Summers passed out rules for the game as if they were practice multiplication sheets.
He gave the kids box scores and showed them where to look for stats their players had accrued, being sure to point out where tougher scoring stats like safeties and two-point conversions could be found.
He even had some of the older kids understanding the intricacies of the scoring system, and how to assign value to, say, a quarterback versus a running back.
This is Summers’s approach to teaching math, a decidedly un-cool topic with nerd connotations.
Summers explains that the department tries to make projects “hands on,” he says.
“Otherwise they’ll lose interest.”
This is a great example of just how deeply fantasy sports has penetrated our lives. It has become so mainstream that teachers are using the hobby to encourage children to learn math. The results have been positive, so I wouldn’t be surprised if more and more schools started using the technique. The only challenge is getting teachers that are unfamiliar with fantasy sports on board.
And it doesn’t end with fantasy football – once the season is over, Mr. Summers should start a fantasy basketball league to fill the void.
