SEW Instructional Menu
The Greatest Game/Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Kellie Cook
Type I’s
1. After reading/listening/watching Casey at the Bat, students will write their own poem or short story about baseball.
2. Watch “Who’s on 1st?” video. Give many, varied, and unusual possible nicknames for baseball players. Pick the best idea and draw a caricature of that player as it relates to the nickname.
3. Read a curse/superstition from book. Have students create their own curse/superstition concerning a baseball player or team.
4. Listen to “Centerfield”. Students will be asked to make connections to baseball history and literature mentioned in the song as well as equipment needed to play baseball.
5. Sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Re-write the song using musical tune of your choice.
6. Complete the baseball word search. Develop a crossword or word scramble puzzle using 20 common baseball terms.
7. Color baseball coloring sheets. Identify many varied mascots for baseball teams. Design this character. Extenstion: Some mascots are live animals. Identify some living things that could be used. Example: bearded dragon.
8. Observe packaging of peanuts, popcorn, Cracker Jack, and sunflower seeds. Identify many varied food items sold at baseball games. Create a menu of foods and drinks that could be sold at baseball games.
9. Read Swing. Write a pop-up book about baseball for young children.
10. Dr. Hubner guest speaker—experiment with impact using a force transducer built by Dr. Hubner’s students.
11. Dr. Hubner—trip to physics lab to include lesson on drag and experiment using the wind tunnel.
12. Dr. Hubner—trajectory experiment on ball field next to Matthews Elementary School. Students will gather data and create a way to present the data.
13. Dr. Hubner—experiment concerning the effects of the environment on a baseball. Students will gather data and create a way to present the data.
14. Watch Goofy baseball video clip from YouTube. Identify the materials used to make a baseball.
15. Pick out and read a book from the interest center. Complete a project from the product cards.
16. Identify many, varied, unusual methods players can use to get their coaches attention and get put in the game.
17. Read Curious George. Design a baseball hat for a team.
18. Read pg. 111 from Play Ball: Home Runs for Life. Identify many, varied, and unusual designs for a team’s “rally cap”?
19. After playing catch with different types of balls, students will design their own glove using an assortment of materials.
20. Read from Bury My Heart at Cooperstown then make a tombstone for a baseball player. Write an obituary for this player similar to what you would read in the newspaper.
21. Look at a baseball scorecard. Identify each position on the field by the number used to represent it.
22. After watching a clip from “Field of Dreams,” students will research and design their own baseball stadiums.
Type II’s:
1. Following guest speaker Dr. Paul Hubner’s discussion of trajectory, use a hula hoop to measure the trajectory of a thrown ball.
2. Perform impact activity with chalk and baseball to demonstrate inertia.
3. Perform an investigation with Dr. Hubner’s guidance to examine the forces acting on a ball.
4. Demonstrate the transfer of energy using an assortment of balls including a basketball, baseball, golf ball, tennis ball, soccer ball, softball, kickball.
5. Find the “sweet spot” on a bat. Materials needed include a partner, one bat, and one ball.
6. Measure the difference in ball size due to temperature. Materials include 2 baseballs, a convection oven, a cooler of ice, oven mitts, and a measuring tape. Ball should be heated or cooled for one hour.
7. Using books from the interest development center, the Internet, and other available resources, research changes in the size of the baseball throughout its history.
8. Determine the effect of temperature on the size and hardness of a baseball and on the density of air. Materials include 2 baseballs, a convection oven, a cooler of ice, oven mitts, and a meter stick.
9. Measure the effect of moisture on hardness and weight of a baseball. Materials needed include 2 baseballs, a balance, a bowl of water. Extension may use a bowl of hot water and a bowl of cold water.
10. Dr. Hubner will demonstrate drag and Bernoulli’s principle on a baseball using the wind tunnel at the engineering building at UA.
11. Try to throw a fastball, curveball, screwball after learning how to hold the baseball for each pitch.
12. Use the Internet, baseball cards, and books from the interest development center to research different baseball players in history.
13. Calculate the batting average of any player given the number of at bats and number of hits for one game, season, lifetime.
14. Calculate the earned run average of a pitcher for one game, season, lifetime.
15. Using the Internet, books, and magazines, research the value of baseball trading cards.
16. Using the Internet and other available resources, research the cost of purchasing a baseball club.
17. Using the Internet and other available resources, research what is involved in trades or Major League Baseball contracts.
18. Using books from the interest development center, the Internet, and other available resources, research the changes in the size and shape of baseball fields since baseball’s beginning.
19. Identify and research 20 Major League Baseball players from any era or combination of eras using materials from the interest development center, the Internet, and other available resources. Be sure to determine the last team they played for, their career and career best batting averages, the position(s) they played, if they were a pitcher, their earned run average for their career and their career best, and the number of career homeruns and their season best number of homeruns. How many years did they play? Extension: Determine what their salary was when they last played. How did this rank for that time period?
20. Perform the experiment plastic cups in love to demonstrate Bernoulli’s principle.
21. Invent your own sports game using physics techniques. How can force, momentum, and torque be applied to your new game? Be sure to identify materials needed for your game.
22. Perform an investigation to demonstrate Bernoulli’s principle using a plastic ball and two small paper cups.
23. Assemble a lineup of nine players and one substitute for your own baseball team using past and present players.
24. Using the Internet and other available resources, research superstitions and curses associated with baseball. Write your own.
Type III’s
1. Write and produce a podcast (audio or video) of a simulated baseball game to demonstrate your knowledge of the rules of baseball.
2. Write a book about baseball for young children.
3. Design a better baseball.
4. Design a better baseball glove.
5. Design a better baseball helmet.
6. Create an animation about baseball for a children’s story.
7. Develop a video game about baseball.
8. Make sock puppets and present a puppet show for younger children.
9. Conduct and record “interviews” of current or former Major League Baseball players. (Players will be portrayed by students.)