HURRICANE, W.Va. - Sporting black tape below each eye - one
piece reading "Go!" and the other "49ers!" - 8-year-old Caleb
Allawat left no doubt that he's a football fan. His level of
engagement during math class Monday might have been a little
misleading as to his fondness for the subject. Thanks to the
Super Bowl statistics used during the lesson, the third-grader
was finding math more fun. "Because it's about football," Caleb
said. This is the sixth year Sue Pate has incorporated
statistics from the NFL championship game into her math lessons.
An avid football fan herself - one of her sons plays for
Fairmont State University and the other for Hurricane High
School - Pate said she already was following the statistics in
the newspaper. In a "light bulb moment," she realized the
statistics could be a new way to engage her students. "It's just
using math outside their textbooks in a fun and exciting way."
She usually presents the themed lesson the Friday before the big
game. Because last week ended with a snow