March Madness  It’s tournament time and its going to be awesome baby!! Throughout this webquest you are going to realize how we use graph theory in our everyday lives, even in basketball!!

Introduction  Scheduling for basketball tournaments can be very intricate due to special circumstances and criteria that needs to be met.  In this webquest, you will explore and apply the concepts of graph theory as it relates to scheduling a NCAA basketball tournament.

Tasks  This activity focuses on applying graph theory to derive a schedule to meet the criteria of a tournament.  You will look at many different concepts of discrete mathematics found in scheduling a NCAA basketball tournament.  By then end of this webquest, you will be able to relate a wide variety of math concepts to the NCAA tournament and explain how we use graph theory in scheduling a basketball tournament.

Procedures 1)You will be broken into groups of three or four to devise a schedule so that all criteria of the tournament are met. 2)As a class, we will discuss the problem statement and what is expected of each group but not how to begin solving the problem. 3)Print off the NCAA Tournament activity sheet in the resources provided and work in groups to develop their own solutions and methods. resources 4)Research the statistics of the NCAA division one teams thus far for this season. 5)Write a paragraph on how graph theory can help you devise a schedule so that all the criteria of the tournament are met.

Procedures 6)Draw graphs that you think will help you devise a tournament schedule that will meet the criteria for this tournament. 7)Use the resources provided to find out where each college or university is located. Include this information on your graphs bearing in mind distances between locations of games, home team advantage and other criteria needed to be considered.resources 8)When the groups are finished, have each group have a spokesperson share their methods and the processes they used to develop a schedule. 9)As a class discuss each of the groups methods as it relates to graph theory.

Evaluation  You correctly draw graphs that will meet two criteria: distances between locations of games and home team advantage.  You must integrate the statistics of the NCAA teams into your graphs.  Your graphs have to be accurate, neat and easy to read.  You will be evaluated on the completeness and accuracy of your paragraph on how graph theory helps you devise a schedule so that all the criteria of the tournament are met.

Conclusion  From searching web pages and exploring the concepts of discrete mathematics, you should have learned more about graph theory as it relates to scheduling.  You should also understand how we use graph theory in real life situations, even in basketball.  You should now see all the mathematics that surround the NCAA basketball tournament.

Teacher’s Page For questions or more resources me at  NCTM Standards Problem solving, Communication, Reasoning, Connections, Geometry, Discrete Mathematics  Curriculum Integration This activity could be integrated in Algebra or Geometry class as the topic of graph theory or patterns.  Mathematics Concepts Graph Theory, Scheduling, Critical Paths, Modeling Projects, Applying Graphs

Further Investigation Extend the problem to explore the tournament on how to determine the winner or ranking schedule. Expand the problem by changing a task’s time and see how this does or does not affect the minimum project time. Conduct an actual tournament in the classroom with each group as a team and discuss their schedules, which was the easiest to follow, which schedule was more time efficient?

Resources Tasks Procedures Evaluation Conclusion  Complete Complete Listing of Colleges and Universities  Official Official NCAA Site  Last Last Season’s Bracket  College College Sports Online  NCAA NCAA Tournament Activity Sheet  List List of Division One Basketball Teams  List List of Division One Conferences  Team Team Statistics

The End Created By: Kelly Kinder