Baseball Grows Up  (Technology/Evolution of Equipment Grades 4 - 8)
Bottom of the ninth, two men on, two out, the score is tied.  With the crack of the bat and the soft thud of a hardball settling into a leather glove, the games goes to extra innings - just as the story of equipment never ends.  Have you ever tried catching a baseball without a glove or hitting a pitch with a flat bat?  How about standing in against a flame-throwing pitcher without the protection of a batting helmet?  The equipment makes the game and mirrors important developments in history and industry.  As baseball grew up, safety, technology, available resources and a desire for greater effectiveness have led to invention, change and standardization of equipment.  Students in grades four through eight can slide home in this engaging unit that encourages observation, estimation and reasoning.

Baseball Grows Up

    Objectives – in completing this lesson, students will:

A.     Examine historical artifacts and modern-day baseball equipment.

B.     Analyze, through interactive dialogue and discussion, the physical characteristics of equipment; compare and contrast similarities and differences.

C.     Understand how factors of change that operate in society at large have led to advances in baseball equipment and the evolving nature of the game itself.