ATC is committed to encouraging youth to explore careers in STEM and the electric industry. As part of that effort, ATC sponsors the Milwaukee Bucks Math Hoops program to help Wisconsin students increase their math fluency and social and emotional skills in a fun and engaging way.
Emmily, a student from United Community Center’s Bruce-Guadalupe Elementary School, was selected to represent the Milwaukee Bucks at the 2024 Math Hoops Global Championship in New York City this summer. She and her teammate, who represented the Washington (D.C.) Wizards, faced off against 23 other students from 16 different NBA Math Hoops programs across the United States, and from Puerto Rico and Melbourne, Australia.
Sean Patterson, All-Star Educator for the Milwaukee Bucks and Emmily’s teacher said, “Math Hoops has been an excellent curriculum tool to engage my students in practicing math in a fun and interactive manner. As her teacher, I am so proud of Emmily and her hard work.”
Participants in the Global Championship were selected based on nominations from their program educator and qualifying criteria that includes playing a minimum of 25 Math Hoops games and completing 10 curriculum units over the course of a season. Students also must display a high degree of growth throughout the program, strong sportsmanship and an ability to overcome adversity in their lives.
Math Hoops, powered by ATC, is a fast-paced, basketball-based educational board game and digital app that follows a 10- to 16-week curriculum designed to engage fourth through eighth grade students while developing fundamental math skills through the game of basketball. During the 2023-2024 season, 10,773 Wisconsin students from 134 locations statewide played 258,552 Math Hoops games and solved over 27 million math problems. Participants’ math fluency improved by 27% during the season.
NYC visit included tournament play, STEM activities and 2024 NBA draft
The Global Championship was co-hosted with NBA Cares and featured many STEM-focused activities for the 24 NBA team representatives. On June 26, the students explored the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J. There, they selected their favorite NBA and WNBA players for their teams and competed in the first round of tournament play before attending the 2024 NBA Draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The Barclays Center is home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA’s New York Liberty teams. Emmily and her fellow participants also attended the pre-draft red carpet experience with first round draftees and current NBA players.
The following day, the students arrived at Joseph I. Lubin House, home base for Syracuse University’s New York City operations, where they learned about sports analytics. Afterwards, Learn Fresh staff led an activation from The Achievery by AT&T, where students dived into the different types of angles in the game of basketball and participated in an interactive activity shooting hoops with their partners. That night, the participants attended the 2024 Math Hoops Global Championship awards ceremony and dinner at Dave & Buster’s in Times Square.
On June 28, the students played in the final round of the tournament at the NBA Headquarters in New York City. Students got a behind-the-scenes tour of the offices, the league’s operations and a look at the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. After the competition, two winners were declared, and two sportsmanship awards were given out. While Emmily and her teammate didn’t win, she had a great experience!
The next Math Hoops season will kick off in October 2024. Do you know a teacher who might be interested? Let them know they can sign up for a virtual training session and free board game and curriculum information at https://nbamathhoops.com/training.