:: "Journey to Greatness" :: Carpenter and Delaney rededicate Honorary Founders plaque :: Wigand blast cuts in state tobacco funding :: Journalist warns of bioterrorism threat :: Lady Ospreys help with school math project ::

March 2004

Lady Ospreys help Fletcher students learn math

Jackie Beik of the Lady Ospreys talks with Heather Davis, a student at Chets Creek Elementary School. Heather is the daughter of Tanya Davis, who, along with Cathy Poe, is a teacher at Fletcher Middle School. Students at the middle school track UNF player stats as a way of improving math skills.

Kathy Poe is an innovative math and science teacher who knows that the key to learning for her sixth-grade students at Fletcher Middle School is to make the subject exciting and relevant. By using the UNF Lady Ospreys basketball team, Poe has found a novel way not only to teach math, but to teach some of life’s lessons as well.

About three years ago, Poe contacted Nancy Miller, assistant coach of the Lady Ospreys, to see if there was a way to form a learning partnership. As a former student of Poe’s at Fletcher Junior High in the late ’80s, Miller was eager to help.

The basic premise is simple. Each of Poe’s students “adopts” a UNF women’s basketball player at the beginning of the season. The student then has the responsibility of maintaining the player’s statistics, including the number of shots taken, field goals and free throws, to compile the player’s averages.

“It’s really a wonderful way of making math relevant to each student,” said Poe, a UNF alum.

Tracking the statistics also gives Poe’s students practice in developing skills for the all-important FCAT. The fact that the women’s team has had a winning streak adds to the excitement, Poe said.

“They follow the team in the paper after every game,” Poe said.

The students even wrote a letter to the sports editor at the Florida Times-Union one year complaining about the lack of coverage in the paper for the winning Ospreys.

But the exercises go beyond math skills. The students also develop relationships with the players over the year.

“For some of my students, the UNF players are real role models. When they (the players) visit us in class, the kids are in awe of them,” Poe said.
One UNF player, senior Rachel Clower, said it means a lot to the team as well.

“It is a very humbling experience knowing that we have kids looking up to us and supporting us,” she said. “If anything, we have the best end of the deal. While these kids have the hard part of working on their math skills, we have the easy part of just playing the game we love. So, I have to say, it is a huge motivational boost knowing that we are a part of helping kids learn.”

The relationships that develop between the players and students are what appeal to Miller as well.

“Not only is the project a fun and interesting twist on learning math, it also allows for the personal interaction of our student-athletes with younger children who look up to them as role models,” Miller said.

Other lessons are learned, too. When one of Poe’s students asked why his player was not playing more, he was told there was a problem with her academic performance.

“The message is clear,” Poe said. “If you don’t do well in the classroom, you can’t play on the court.”

Once during each season, the students get to visit the locker room before and after a game, and meet with the players. Poe said that for many of her students, this is the first opportunity they have had to go to a college game. The game also gives the students an opportunity to participate in an event with their parents.

“It’s a wonderful activity for the whole family,” Poe said. “Getting parents involved in school projects is an important element to success.”

The program has become so popular that Poe said many parents will ask if the UNF Basketball Math will be included in that year’s math classes.

At the end of the season, the players visit the classroom to receive a final report from each student. A variety of creative measures are used by the students to package the report, including a homemade trophy, a life-size poster of a player and even computer-generated player’s cards similar to baseball cards.

The relationship between the students and players goes beyond sports. Last year, the students received letters from the UNF players encouraging them to do well on the FCAT.

“The students follow the players’ success on the basketball floor, while the players follow the students’ success in the classroom,” Poe said.

Yes, students still learn about fractions, decimals and percentages as a result of the project, but Poe believes the lessons go far beyond math. It’s a lesson in life, she said.