Minor League Baseball Stadium

This is a project based learning (PBL) unit that will cover addition, subtraction, comparing/ordering/reading large numbers, writing numbers in standard, expanded, and word form. It also promotes creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
Students are tasked with creating a baseball stadium for their town. This real world math project will keep your students invested and engaged!
Begin by presenting your entry document to the class. The letter from your town’s mayor is an exciting kick off to the project! Have the class read the document 2-3 times underlining parts they know they will need to do and circling parts they are unsure about. As a whole class, create a know/need to know chart. An example is included in this package. Answer the Need to Know questions that you as a teacher can (ex: are we working in groups?). Allow the students to search for meanings of words/phrases they are unsure about.
Talk as a group about options they students have to present their projects in. Examples include: Powerpoint, poster, Prezi, Popplet, PowToon, etc. Create a check list with all of the parts of the project the students/groups will need to include. The class can assign a point value to each part as well as a due date.
Students/groups can now break off and work on their projects. They should create their team name, mascot, and team colors; determine an appropriate stadium size based on their city’s population. Students can draft MLB players by looking up their salaries online (http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/). Students can look up houses for sale in their area on Zillow.com or other real estate sites. If your students do not have access to the internet, ask them to bring in the real estate listings from their local newspapers to use. As students draft players, they will write each player a check and deduct the amount from their $2,000,000,000.00 budget in the expense report tracker page. As students buy a house for their player, they will write a check to the local bank for the amount of the house and deduct the amount from their remaining budget. If groups have any money left over they can buy additional amenities for their players (in ground pool, trampoline, etc.) or they cannot spend it and explain in their presentation that they came in under-budget!
On the checks, students will fill out as normal and write the price in expanded form on the MEMO line.
Once students have created their team, they will need to create a presentation explaining their new baseball team and stadium to the “athletic directors” who will be viewing their proposals.
You can invite your school’s administration, parents, sport team directors, etc. to view the projects and give feedback to the students. Students should receive their feedback to go over and make any revisions to their projects they’d like to.

Hand out the Memo from the mayor explaining that they have presold tickets. Print out the included tickets and have students create numbers by rolling dice, or teacher can write in appropriate numbers. Students will receive tickets and compare and order the ticket numbers in order from least to greatest. Students can paste the tickets on construction paper or include them in their presentation.
Students can represent with their revisions or not. This project can continue to be worked on through a multiplication and division unit as well. Students can be tasked to figure out how many seats will be box seats, how many tvs will be in each box and how many tvs will be needed in all. You can use similar tasks to work in the food court items, bathrooms, etc.
A fun extension activity would be to take a field trip to a baseball stadium and arrange for a tour or the stadium.