My Addled Brain Learns Math & Science

Research continues to show that boys and girls learn differently.  Taken from scans of the brain, girl's brains--the hippocampus and Cerebral Cortex in particular--generally devote higher functioning to verbal and memory skills.  Boy's brains are dedicate more towards spatial and mechanic functioning.  

Without making gross over-generalizations, I am beginning to believe in this day and age of smartphones, HD gaming, and access to other technology, the gap between how the brain functions across genders is decreasing.  I continue to observe, however, differences between how boys and girls function and learn in school settings and work on developing a variety of tactics to engage the student with whom I work.

With this in mind, I have been asked more and more to find resources for STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) instruction and classes, particularly for students who are "reluctant" scientists or mathematicians.  Here are some interesting ones:

1. The Science of Football--From NBCLearn, this site uses videos to discuss physics and math as it relates to football.  Excellent visuals for understanding.
2. Exploratiorium's Sport Science--Site has a wide variety of resources and lessons that deal the the math and science of sports.  Most sports have some representation here as well...Go Sk8trs!
3. MLB Vision--Awesome video dealing the calculations, reaction time and vision needed to hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball.  
4. The Science of Hockey--From NBCLearn, this collection of videos discusses math and science as it relates to hockey.
5. Mathematics in Sports--Great, higher-level site that deals with a variety of aspects of math in sports--how to make the best football or tennis racket, the power of the right swimming suit...

I have to admit Math and Science (notice the capital letters) are not my forte, but I find them entirely interesting.  Combined with a true passion (sports), the ability to visualize how all these things come together makes science riveting!

Some other suggestions:

• Use fantasy sports to teach math concepts like averages, basic math functions
• Use bowling to teach math (elementary)
• Use pool to teach about geometry and possibly some trig
• Use sports to teach statistics (Moneyball)

I would certainly have retained much more math and science learning it this way.