Lawrence Funderburke told students at Pointview the same thing his second grade teacher, Ms. Johnson, once told him – “You can be anything you want in life if you put your mind to it.”
Lawrence Funderburke is a famous basketball player. His success at The Ohio State University and in the NBA, where he played primarily for the Sacramento Kings, is undisputed. What many people don’t know is that Funderburke graduated magna cum laude from OSU, where he earned a degree in Business Finance, and that he is even more passionate about education than basketball. And he’s doing something about it. He has started “Mr. Fundy’s Math Basketball Challenge,” a free, online math study tool to help children in grades 3-6 prepare for the math portion of the Ohio Achievement Assessment or similar standardized tests. It’s sports-related, which makes it fun, and will be live beginning March 20, just in time for the start of March Madness and the NCAA Tournament.
In Westerville, Funderburke recently introduced his program at Pointview, Wilder, Hawthorne, Annehurst, Hanby, Alcott, Robert Frost, Emerson and Fouse. Students, parents and teachers will be able to access more than 150 basketball-related math problems. “When kids can see a connection between math and their lives, it creates engagement that leads to learning,” he said. All of the problems are aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The slam dunk with Mr. Fundy’s Math Basketball Challenge is that students are building their critical thinking, reasoning, and computational skills, all while preparing to do better on their upcoming Ohio Achievement Assessments. An essay contest is also part of the program, with 50 winners being selected to participate in a “super cool, fun, free basketball and math clinic” hosted by Funderburke and other celebrities. The topic of the essay is, “Why is math important to you?” Submissions will be judged on authenticity, clarity and genuineness.
Funderburke said he is motivated to provide this program because of his challenging upbringing. As a child from a single-parent home who grew up on welfare in one of the city’s toughest housing projects, he saw education as his way out of the ghetto – not sports. “I received a great public school education because I had teachers who took an active role in making sure I fulfilled my intellectual abilities,” he said.