Chapter 3: Decimals and Equations

#2009, First One in the Ballpark - Lisa Winston reports the facts on baseball players by arriving early and keeping a close watch on statistics.

Ask students to name some of the mathematical ideas or skills that they think coaches and other people involved in sports might need to know.  Accept some answers, and ask them to look for more as they watch Futures Channel Movie #2009,  “First One in the Ballpark”.  In subsequent discussion, elicit or point out some of these math applications:

• Arithmetic with whole numbers  (for example, adding to find total career yardage for a quarterback)
• Finding averages (you may wish to ask students to identify what kind of number a batting average is: whole number, fraction, or decimal fraction, and to name some of the place values and describe the meaning of the decimal point)
• Comparing decimal numbers (for example with race times)