May 1999 
NEWS FEATURE:
Help your kids learn mathematics
through the use of Baseball Cards.
I was recently talking to a good
friend of mine on the telephone. She said that her son has been struggling
to pay attention to his math homework and would rather play baseball outside
with his friends! I began to discuss with her some tips for making
learning exciting and then an exciting idea came into my head!
Many young pre-teen boys are
very interested in Baseball Cards. They trade them with their friends.
They sell them. They memorize the player's statistics which are listed
on the back of a baseball card. But some of these boys and girls
have a hard time with their math skill--yet, they know baseball player
statistics. So it became obvious to me that some simple math can
be taught through playing with Baseball Cards!
Addition:
Kids can begin to add the hits, doubles, triples, home runs or strikeouts
by year FOR A PLAYER to find out how many in a category a player has for
his career. For example: How many career home runs has Hall
of Famer Nap Lajoie hit according to his baseball card?
Go
to Nap Lajoie Sample Baseball Card
Subtraction:
You can have your child subtract the number of strikeouts from the years
that the player hit his largest home run totals to see if the player had
a larger strikout per plate appearance in the years that he hit more homeruns.
Division: What is
Nap Lajoie's career batting average according to his baseball card?
How would you figure out a baseball average?
It is easy:
Just take the total hits of a player and divide them by the total number
of at-bats for a player. The number you receive should have three
significant digits--this number is called a batting average!
Multiplication:
You can teach your child to multiply by multiplying the number of years
that a player plays times the statistics of one year to see if the player
was consistent over the years of his career.
There are many other calculations that can
be performed using a Baseball Card. Take a look at some of the other
links listed. If you spend time with your child and teach them math
like they are playing a game. They will learn to have fun with
their math problems and learn while they play sports!
Baseball
Math Links
Nap
Lajoie Sample Baseball Card
E-mail for comments, or if you have
any questions about a more fulfilled life to:
Mail To: kharley@asapnet.net
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This page last updated on May 14, 1999.