Day 11 - Hockey Stats

The Problem...

• How are all those hockey stats collected and what do people do with them?

Why?

• Engage students with the data collection and management behind sports
• Expose students to the real-world application of statistics
• Entry point to talking about the cultural impact of hockey in Canada

This entry is coming a day late because I was too upset to write one after the Leafs loss to the Bruins in overtime in Game 7 yesterday.  It's fresh on the minds of Leafs fans so I decided I would blog about it and somehow tie it to math.  Below is an nhl.com screenshot of the top 10 players from the 2012-2013 NHL regular season:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?season=20122013&gameType=2&team=&position=S&country=&status=&viewName=summary#?navid=nav-sts-indiv

That is a lot of stats to collect for each player!  In addition to analyzing the data on the site in a Grade 12 Data Management class, the question of how and why they collect these stats at all would be an interesting way of pulling the topic into the 21st Century Classroom.  

Close to home...

I think an awesome activity would be for a class to organize in order to collect an array of statistics of a team's season.  Ideally it would be a season played by their own high-school team so small groups of students could go out to collect stats for each game.  The class could consult with the coach/team at the beginning of the year in order to Collaboratively decide what statistics would be most beneficial for the team. They could analyze the stats over the course of the year and create reports to the coach who could ideally use them to improve the team's performance, supporting both Real-World Problem Solving and Skilled Communication.

In addition to potentially providing the coach with tools for improving the team's performance, the purpose of this activity would be to expose students to the process for the collection of data and some of the complications that may arise.  This Knowledge Construction would not occur if students were just studying stats taken from nhl.com.

Note: this obviously doesn't have to be a for a hockey team.  It could be any sport. Hockey is just what I had on my mind at the time of writing.

Digging deeper...

Once they have collected the data, they could start asking the deeper questions about collecting data in sports.  For example: in what ways are the data collected in hockey games are used?  Below are some things that may come up:

• Help teams improve their performance:  find ways to improve their team or find weaknesses in other teams
• Scouting for the NHL: the site behindthenet has a comprehensive report on how junior player's stats are projected to estimate what their performance in the NHL would be
• Fans love stats!  Stats get fans more engaged.  It is a source of revenue for the teams and leagues.
• Provide research for medical studies (for example: the concussion epidemic)

Here are some other questions that may be good discussion starters: 

• How much money is spent to collect stats in the NHL?
• Is it worth all the money to collect the stats?
• How many people does it take to collect stats for one NHL game?
• How might projecting a Junior players stats into the NHL be problematic?

21C...

1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
4. Skilled Communication: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation

Future lesson ideas...

• Along the same lines but for Baseball: the math behind Moneyball (the movie)