Phils fans aren’t the only ones happy about the team’s recent playoff success. It’s also making math class for 5th grade students at McDonald Elementary a lot more fun.

Math teacher Joe Picasano is using the team to teach his 5th graders statistics -- and so far it’s working.

“I did this last year -- without doing this -- and a lot of the kids got the things wrong,” said Picasano. “But once I applied it to baseball everything kind of clicked.”

Students study how many hits each player had and how many times he went to bat. They then use the info to figure out their batting averages.

The fun assignments have given 10-year old Makayla Christian a new appreciation for the baseball stat.

“I wasn’t that into it, I just really wanted to watch the game,” said Makayla. “But now I know that it’s actually kind of important to know about the players and all their numbers.”

The students have also kept journals, applying what they know about decimals and algebra in order to predict how many hits the players will get. Student Matt Kraus has a good hunch about Jimmy Rollins.

“I think Jimmy Rollins, he’s not doing too good, but I think he’s going to raise his batting average and do a whole lot better.”

So the next time your kid is up late on a school night watching a playoff game, don’t get mad. He’s just doing his homework.

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