| Library
Media Specialist Sara Robison faced the overwhelming
task of aligning her school district's video collection
with California's frameworks while keeping within
a limited budget. She got the help she needed from
her local cable company and Cable in the Classroom
programs like ESPN SportsFigures. "Mathematics
is always a difficult subject to match with video
materials," she says. "But SportsFigures is a
winning combination of math and sports. When
we turn to the mathematics frameworks for grades
9-12, it's such a good fit." Among other skills,
the California frameworks call for students to be
able to apply vectors, the Pythagorean theorem,
and algebra in "concrete situations." "SportsFigures,"
Robison says, "offers exactly those 'concrete situations.'
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| Physics
Teacher Jeffrey Rodriguez uses SportsFigures
with students because "the high energy of the
program really holds their attention." He also
assigns his students a hands-on project that connects
the abstract world of science to their everyday
world, so when his local cable company sent him
an entry for the 2000 SportsFigures Student Video
Contest, a team of three students decided to
enter their project ---and they won! "I acted as
facilitator, encouraging them to incorporate appropriate
physics principles into their basic script," Rodriquez
says. "In the end, the video focused on the three
types of drag and ways to decrease each of them
to improve your swimming technique. It helped my
students see that physics isn't just about dry equations
in a textbook." |
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| Mathematics
Curriculum Supervisor Kim Loomis knows that
when kids enjoy learning, they learn faster and
they learn more. With Sportsfigures, she
says, "You see the excitement level in the classroom
go up, and that excitement is contagious." When
she shoots for meeting Nevada state standards in
mathematical average, probability, and data analysis,
she scores with a SportsFigures episode about
basketball statistics. "It explains how averages
are calculated, and there are many points where
you can pause to emphasize the vocabulary and the
calculations," she says. "When you pause a video,
it perks kids right up. You've got a tailored teaching
an learning moment right in front of you." |
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