Class Spotlight: Statistical Reasoning in Sports

Moeller is always creating new course options for their students. This year, the school introduced Statistical Reasoning in Sports.

 Statistical Reasoning in Sports has been around for some time at Moeller, but not as a class. The concept started as the Sports Statistics Club run by Mr. Prugh. In the club, students evaluate the performances of athletes and teams. However, Mr. Prugh wanted to bring this opportunity to all students at Moeller, beyond members of the club alone.

The class is only a semester long, but it is filled with tons of opportunities to evaluate some of the biggest performances in sports history! Mr. Prugh, who runs the club as well, teaches the class and brings challenging problems to the students every day. For example, you might work to see if Stephen Curry is a streaky shooter, or you can find out if Cam Newton blew Super Bowl 50. We can all come up with opinionated answers to these questions, but in the class, you’ll see that the numbers don’t lie.

Not only will you find answers to seemingly philosophical questions, but participating in the class will also assist you in becoming a better math student. Most of the work is with numbers and can especially help build foundational knowledge if you ever plan on taking a stats class. You’ll be doing things such as finding categorical variables, stating a null hypothesis, and using bar graphs to find reasonable explanations.

Overall, the class is a great option to further your knowledge outside of the four main courses. Not only will you learn more about sports, but also you will have a background in using statistics, and you will be able to use questions to find an answer to an even bigger question. This course is an amazing opportunity for all students to get the answers to some of the biggest questions in sports history!