Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes

Tune In: Statistics in Sport

30 minutes (plus group demonstration and practice time)

Find Out: Racquet sport statistics

20 minutes

Take Action: Results

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

practise and perform core skills from a chosen racquet sport
collect data on performance.

Success criteria

Students can:

perform and practise these core skills
collect data from the class’s performance
review and analyse this data to make inferences.

Preparation:

This is a split lesson, with the ‘Tune In’ and ‘Find Out’ phases happening first. Students start by exploring the different types of statistics of racquet sports such as badminton, squash and tennis. Students will play 1 of these sports and track their statistics. This could be for 4 weeks or a whole term, depending on what suits you! In the end, they apply their mathematical skills to measure their journey.

Tune In: Statistics in sport

Step 1

Statistics can tell us a lot about sports, whether it’s the statistics of an individual player, a team, a league, or even a whole country.

With your students, look at the following statistics from Australia’s performance at the Commonwealth Games.

Australia is 1 of 6 countries that have sent athletes to every Commonwealth Games.
Australia has placed first at 13 of the 21 games (as of 2024).
Australia has placed in the top 3 for all meets except the first Games in 1930.

Lead a discussion with your students by asking them:

What do these statistics tell you about Australia as a sporting nation?
What can we infer about future Commonwealth Games from this data?
After seeing these statistics, what other questions do you have about Australia’s performance at the Commonwealth Games?

Numeracy extension: Using the Australia’s Commonwealth Games: Medal Tally, explore Australia’s medal tallies across the Commonwealth Games.

Find Out: Racquet sports statistics

Step 1

There are 3 different types of racquet sports at the Commonwealth Games: table tennis, badminton, and squash.

Badminton - #B2022 Sport Explainer Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JptxGyUXlCs)
Table tennis - #B2022 Sport Explainer Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd27t1CQ2kQ)
Squash - #B2022 Sport Explainer Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd27t1CQ2kQ)

After watching the videos, draw a 3-way Venn Diagram for these sports on a whiteboard, looking for commonalities and differences. The Venn Diagram may look like this:

Step 2

Now we know a little bit about these different sports, let’s dig into some statistics!

Using the Student Worksheets and access to the internet, have students choose 1 of these 3 sports and research Team Australia’s performance at the Commonwealth Games. Using the Past Results Archive | Commonwealth Games Australia (https://commonwealthgames.com.au/results/), find some information about 5 Commonwealth Games Athletes. Fill in the statistical data associated with these athletes (Nathan Tang has been completed as an example).

Answer the following questions on the Student Worksheet:

Which of your players won the most sets?
Which of your players won the most games?
Which of your players had the strongest performance?

Step 3

Invite the students to pair up with a classmate who explored a different sport and answer the following questions on the Student Worksheet:

Which sport is Team Australia stronger in, based on your data?
Which sport plays more sets based on your data?
Which sport plays more matches based on your data?

Learning extension: This page shows the results in terms of sets (eg 2-1, 2 sets won, 1 set lost). To extend students’ online research skills, have them look up the scores for each set in each game and compare the points scored by different players, and then across the different sports.

Step 4

Come back together as a class, and see if your interpretation of the data is consistent across the class. There may be some inconsistencies! Let your students know that while these statistics provide good data on an individual's performance, we can’t make meaningful inferences across the group with such a small data set. With that in mind, let’s design our own investigation using the whole class to collect our data.

Take Action: Results

Step 1

Divide the students into groups of 3. In their group, students must design a statistical investigation targeting 1 of these 3 sports: table tennis, badminton, or squash. Students need to choose a skill to measure. This can either be in-game, for example:

number of successful serves
number of successful hits
number of points scored.

…or an out-of-game skill, for example:

number of times you can bounce a ball/shuttle on a racquet without dropping it
number of times you can return a ball/shuttle to a wall
number of hits 2 players can get in a volley.

Students will collect the data from their class based on the chosen skill, de-identify it, and create a boxplot showing the range, mean, mode and median.

Ideally, each group will choose a different statistic to collect. However, you could also decide on 1 skill to record as a whole class.

Step 2

Provide the students with the time to collect their data. If they collect in-game data, set up a series of doubles matches of their chosen sport for the whole class. If they are collecting out-of-game data, have them perform the skill individually. At the end of the session, have the students write down their statistics on paper and drop the paper into a box.

Step 3

Returning to their groups, have students record the data on their Student Worksheets and create a box plot displaying the class data in the space provided.

Step 4

Provide students with time to practise their skills. For out-of-game skills, this could be as short as a week. For in-game skills, we recommend at least 4 weeks (and up to a full term) as part of your physical education program.

Let the students know that we will collect the data again once a set time has passed. Once students have had the opportunity to practise, run the data collection activities again.

Step 5

Using the Student Worksheet, have students construct a second box plot and answer the questions to help them interpret their data. Optionally, students could then use this data to create a visual display (presentation, poster, infographic) presenting the results of their investigation.

Reflection

Have students answer the following:

What did you find most interesting about the data you collected?
The data was anonymous, but you knew the class would be measured again. Did this impact your motivation to practise positively or negatively?
The data was anonymous, but you knew what your own results were. Did this impact your motivation to practise positively or negatively?
How do you think the collection and publication of statistics impact professional athletes?

Sports Statistics of a Population

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