Integrating Physical Education with Math to Teach Statistics

Teachers are always seeking new ways to make learning more engaging and meaningful for students. One powerful strategy is integrating subjects that might not seem connected at first glance—such as physical education and math. By merging these two areas, students not only get to move and stay active, but they also develop important math skills, such as collecting data, finding measures of central tendency, and creating line plots. 

In Grade 6, students took part in some simple, fun activities that provided excellent opportunities to teach math concepts in interactive and memorable ways.

During our long blocks, Grade 6 students took a break from our lessons and performed wall sits for varying lengths of time. We reviewed parallel and perpendicular to make sure everyone was using the proper form for wall sits then set out to gather data. Students also collected data by doing jumping jacks for one minute. They counted how many jumping jacks they could complete in that time frame.

Once the data had been collected, it was time to bring in math concepts. We reviewed mean, median, and mode, also known as measures of central tendency. Students worked in groups to calculate these measures for both their wall sit and jumping jack data. For the mean (average), students had to add up all the numbers in the data set and divide by the total number of values. For the median (middle value), students had to arrange the data in numerical order and find the middle number. Finally, for the mode (most frequent value), students had to identify the value that appears most often in the data set. 

With our measures of central tendency found, students were able to analyze how the values varied and how outliers affected each of the mean and median. We were also able to discuss which value would be the best indicator of the typical number of seconds a Grade 6 student could do a wall sit and the number of jumping jacks a Grade 6 student could do in a minute. Finally, students created a line plot to help visualize their jumping jack data. A line plot is a simple way to display data points along a number line, making it easy to see the distribution of the values.

Integrating physical education with math instruction is a creative and effective way to engage students while enhancing their understanding of both subjects. By combining physical activities with data collection, students gain valuable insights into the practical application of math concepts. This approach helps students see that math isn't just something they do in a classroom; it's something that applies to their daily lives, including their physical activities.