Great Minds Data Talks with basketball on a court

College Basketball Tournament Data Talks

Real-world, free data visualization resources for your math classroom.

It’s time to get your data game on. Great Minds® has created a new, free Data Talks resource kit built around something many of your students may follow closely—the college basketball tournaments. Data Talks are short, low-floor, high-ceiling notice and wonder activities that allow students to think critically and interpret data visualizations. You can use these 10-minute free resources during any part of the day and alongside your reading, math, social studies, or science lessons.   

Great Minds Data Talks invite all students to: 

  • make observations about real-world data,  
  • ask questions, and 
  • develop habits of mind in analyzing data visualizations. 

Download this free Data Talk Kit and select one for your students. The kit includes:  

  • Teacher Facilitation Guide  
  • Projectible Slides for Teachers (PDF)
  • Student Printable Pages 

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Data Talk Resource Kit
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Here’s a sneak peek of the Data Talks topics you’ll find in the kit: 

GRADE LEVELS 3–5
There Can Only Be One

During this Data Talks activity, students explore circle graphs to analyze the number of times a team with each seed (or rank) has won the Division I Men's and Women's College Basketball Championship tournaments. Students may notice that not all seeds have won the tournament. Students explain how they would apply what they learned from the data visualization to predict how likely various teams with different seeds (or ranks) could win the championship game.

GRADE LEVELS 6–ALGEBRA I / MATHEMATICS I
How Far Can They Go

The How Far Can They Go Data Talks activity asks students to consider how many games each team with a particular seed (or rank) in the Men's College Basketball Tournament typically wins. Students will be asked to pick a seed (or rank) and analyze their historical performance in the tournament, determining the number of games a team with that seed has ever won and how many games a team with that seed typically wins. Students then explain how they would apply what they learned from the data visualization to determine if the results from this year's basketball tournament are typical.