Batter Up! Students Take Math Skills to Wrigley

Cubs games are no longer just about celebrating beer, hot dogs and baseball: Teachers at Lane Tech College Prep are putting their own spin on the game.

As a fun way to learn and celebrate math and statistics, roughly 200 students will head to Wrigley Field on May 17 to apply what they’ve learned in a practical way.

Math teacher Christine Gonzales says this is the third year she and her collogues are organizing the event, and they’re ready to get more involved in the game than ever before.

“This year we’re going to create a whole topic that’s based on baseball statistics,” Gonzales said. “If you’ve seen the movie Moneyball, it’s similar to that. Not as intricate, obviously, but using the statistics the kids learned in class, they’ll be applying that in the context of baseball. Like, who’s the best player, and what players hit the best off of others.”

Students also apply what they’ve learned off the baseball field, like collecting the prices of hot dogs around the park and calculating the average price and standard deviation.

"We want to make sure the students were interested and motivated while creating a math scenario that was applicable post high school."

It’s all a part of the teachers’ growing ways to keep students interested, especially when some fall into a “senior slide.”

“In general, any time that you teach a senior elective class, motivation is always an issue,” Gonzales said. “They’re on the verge of graduation, and they don’t need this class to graduate. We want to make sure the students were interested and motivated while creating a math scenario that was applicable post high school.”

The field trip to Wrigley comes days after the students take their advanced placement exam, so Gonzales said it also doubles as a reward for completing the class.

Using the data collected at the Cubs game—where Gonzales scored tickets for just $5 a head—the team of teachers will create a two-week lesson plan. And it all circles back to applying what’s learned at Lane Tech in a useful way.

“In almost all professions, stats and data analysis is one of the more common skills being expected of students,” Gonzales said. “It’s important that students know how to analyze numbers, and this shows how to do it in an everyday context.”