Learning from Baseball

Whether it's time for spring training or the World Series, baseball offers lots of opportunities for learning. It's a game of statistics, so the Math opportunities are almost endless. It's also a national pastime with its own place in American history. Baseball also involves lots of special vocabulary, and some fascinating physics.

TeachersFirst has collected samples of Baseball-related lessons from around the Web. We'll add to this collection as suitable new material becomes available. Enjoy!

Baseball and Science

The Science of Baseball is the Exploratorium's collection of activities and descriptions involving physics, biomechanics, and baseball. What makes a curve ball curve, anyway? How quickly does a batter have to react to hit a ball thrown at 95 miles per hour? There's lots of real-world physics at this site, and the presentation is engaging as well as instructive.

The Physics of Baseball - The closest thing we've found to one-stop shopping for baseball physics, this site catalogs more than a dozen resources from simple explanations to Java applets that plot fly ball trajectories. You'll find lots of resources for building lessons or demonstrating principles. From the University of Illinois.

Where's the Sweet Spot? - Find out where and why at this Australian site.

Baseball Statistics - Here's a lesson for middle schoolers from the NCTM Illuminations site that will familiarize students with both baseball and statistics. Teachers may want to add their own creative touches to this one.

Baseball Math Games - Here's a set of baseball-related math activities for students of all ages.

Fastball Reaction Time - Use this game to test your reaction time and see if you can hit the ball out of the park. The game will show you your reaction time to each "pitch." From San Francisco's Exploratorium.

Graphical History of Baseball - Grades 6-12 - The design is really basic, but this site offers on-line graphs comparing baseball data like batting averages over the past century. It would be a great starting point for a lesson in interpreting graphs.

Math League Baseball - Grade 8 - Here's a five week, standards-correlated unit for 8th graders on the mathematics of baseball. Teachers could either use the entire unit or excerpt elements for shorter lesson units. There's a whole field full of good ideas in this one!

Math Baseball - This is an on-line game in which students advance runners and score runs by completing math problems of varying difficulties. Users can select easy or difficult problems, either non-algebraic or algebraic, and watch the runners move as the scoreboard changes.

Batter's Up Baseball - Grades 4-8 - Here's another Flash-enhanced math game built on a baseball theme. The problems (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) presented vary widely in difficulty, so the game could be used across several grades or with students of varying ability.

San Francisco Baseball & Math - Grades 4-8 - This site asks users to solve math problems by scouring the San Francisco Giants' web site for prices, statistics, and other information. A good baseball web quest and math lesson.

Baseball Statistics Menu - This section from the Baseball Almanac offers definitions of some of the more common - and also more obscure - offensive, defensive, and pitching statistics. Lots of possibilities here: let students create formulas from the definition, compare stats for their favorite teams, etc., etc.

Baseball Reference - Lots of information and statistics in this site. Math teachers, have at it!

Baseball Writing and Word Scrambles - Print these out to challenge your students

Tinker to Evers to Chance - Here's a sports writing assignment that lets students experience some of the great players of baseball's early years. Some may find it challenging, but it would be a great assignment for students interested in the topic.

Baseball Word Scramble - A simple word scramble that you can print and copy for student use.

Baseball Fan's Word Scramble - Another scramble with words and phrases from fans.

Baseball and American History

Baseball and Jackie Robinson - Grades 6-12 - This Library of Congress collection has information on Jackie Robinson and lots more. As always, the images are the star of the show, and there are pictures of early teams, documentation on Robinson's entry into the big leagues, and much more. Well worth a visit.

The Black Baseball Leagues - Grades 3-12 - This is a comprehensive site offering detailed information on the black leagues and the players who made them great. Could be used as way to introduce black achievements in a different context.

Baseball Cards - 1887-1914 - The Library of Congress has collected this exhibit of early baseball trading cards, published at a time when collecting was a passion among adults, not children. The site is interesting as a reflection of cultures and interests at the turn of the century, and also for its portrayals of some of the greats of the game as their contemporaries saw them.

All American Girls' Professional Baseball League - This site chronicles the short-lived history of women's baseball during the Second World War, offering information on teams and players. We wish there were more information available.

Official Stuff

Major League Baseball has its own home page, an entry point for information on teams, player, statistics, and history.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame offers lots of information on famous players and the history of the game. It's a great starting point for students interested in baseball's impact on American culture, especially in the early 20th century.

Baseball America Online provides coverage of high school, college, and minor league ball as well as "the bigs."