As we approach March in Lexington, KY, it is an exciting time. February is a difficult month between ice storms, the occasional polar vortex, and rare sunlight, but March brings the connecting piece between winter and the warm afternoons on the lake: NCAA basketball postseason.
Understanding basketball is necessary to navigate cultural norms and conversations in central Kentucky. In 2019, four Kentucky universities were represented in the Men’s NCAA tournament and the University of Kentucky (UK) Men’s team has the most tournament appearances of any team in history.
Each year, cafeterias, libraries, classrooms, gyms… every room is full of students pausing traditional school activities to watch teams fight to keep their seasons going. Withholding instruction to watch basketball games is a horrible use of time in schools unless you go about it the right way. What March Madness holds for students in Lexington, KY is a tremendous opportunity for place-based education and deeper learning through the lens of a national and local phenomenon.
Specifically, what if schools used March to embrace hands-on and experiential learning opportunities through local teams that produce authentic projects? For this piece, I will present project examples for students stemming from the local basketball scene in Lexington. I am proposing what schools could do by embracing the beauty, identity, and accessibility of what makes each community unique and powerful. Instead of letting a generalized set of content requirements that ChatGPT could produce be the end goal for students, let us embrace a soft-skills and place-based approach that enables students to dive deep into their passions and create. Note: These are elevator pitches, and I’m happy to explore these more with conversations.
Math
I will start with the worst yet most accessible topic. Try watching a basketball game without hearing at least 30 statistics, a slew of ratios, and the constant numerical displays on screen. ESPN tracks more numerical data than any human can comprehend and feeds it to commentators. At any given moment, the probability of player X doing Y event can be provided with such factors as home advantage, day of the week, time of the year, the temperature outside, and brand of shoes being worn. Data science and engineering are the current and future industrial age of our world. Those who understand and can use data correctly are running our society right now. Why not introduce it to students through something accessible like basketball if they are already watching the games?
The chances of getting a perfect bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Why is that? It seems crazy- let students explore it and develop data visualizations explaining the math. Bracketology quickly leads to sports gambling, a real and enormous industry through which students can examine how technology and statistics are integral to every aspect of these games. Every child in central Kentucky should grow up understanding the nature of sports betting and brackets (including horse racing). Meanwhile, we are generally worried about how well students can correctly transform parameters in a quadratic graph or factor rational expressions…
History/Social Studies
Let students explore the ratios of white and black players and coaches over the last 8 decades. Let students explore the rhetoric that our community has displayed throughout these years through interviews and surveying local community members. What if students extrapolated these investigations to the university leadership itself? Presidents, provosts, department chairs… the University of Kentucky was founded in 1865, so it would be impossible to discuss its history without the role of race. I argue these explorations also fit into the math category as students will require basic statistics and quantitative reasoning to effectively evaluate racial factors through the lens of history.
Economics
I applaud the NCAA for finally letting students make money. What kind of impact does this have, and what were the factors in this decision? Why did it take this long, or was this a premature move? Should Kentucky host an NBA team? Why have we not done this yet, or should we do it at all? What would an NBA team do to our heavily vested NCAA programs? What about sports gambling? Should all states do it? Why is it legal to gamble digitally in some places but not in others? How much do people make off of betting on college sports?
The UK and Louisville Men’s basketball teams are usually the most expensive NCAA teams in the country. What types of impacts do they have on communities and the state in general? When the Cats don’t make the NCAA tournament, what does that mean for the city’s bars and restaurants? Can you connect events to the Lexington community when the team has a bad year? How important is it that John Calpari gets paid more than any other public employee in the state?
Theater
A Division I NCAA game is a true spectacle at programs like UK. What planning goes into a UK game? Fireworks, explosives, cameras, lights, floors, seating, logistics… it is a mountain of logistical challenges. How do professionals coordinate and manage everything? What is a good project manager at Rupp Arena doing to ensure everything runs smoothly? Is software involved, and what are the stories of folks who keep everything running?
Physical Education
This one is a bit on the-nose, but don’t forget students who are interested in physical conditioning and training. Not just for the team players themselves but the cheerleaders too. Have students talk to trainers and students who work for the program. What does it look like to fix a student up during a game? The pressure on trainers can be immense and they always remain close to the spotlight.
Social Justice
One of the best opportunities for projects and investigations is exploring how our culture approaches Men’s versus Women’s NCAA basketball. For example, the UK Women’s team plays in a different venue than the Men’s team. How much money goes into these programs and are they equitable? How much money comes out? What is attendance like in these programs? Could you quantify and compare how communities view the teams based on gender? Does it depend on the school? What do their facilities look like? A lot of opportunities exist for a deep dive into the narrative of Men’s versus Women’s sports but few are as accessible or public as NCAA postseason.
Music
What are the origins of the UK fight song? Who wrote it and what is the history or meaning behind it? What would changing a fight song look like for a legendary program like UK? Who runs the pep band and how does that experience differ from cheerleading or the basketball team itself? What are some of the stylistic differences between pep bands at the NCAA tournament? Should pep bands be eliminated altogether now that recorded music and sound effects are so accessible?
Now consider the phenomena like these in your own community. How can students explore them in authentic, hands-on ways? These authentic and place-based education opportunities will be more meaningful and long-lasting than the ‘traditional’ school activities.
Learning V. School 