This week in Summer Ehresman’s Computer Science A class, students filled out March Madness brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament. Added to the basketball competition, however, was the additional angle of analyzing the data, which they did through a program called Eclipse.

“We had to insert the different teams and their stats as an array list, and then using that we had to use loops and if statements to determine which team had the best/worse for each stat,” senior Will McComas said.

Students made the brackets on Wednesday before the tournament began, and although basketball is a big focus for students while making the bracket, the activity can also teach important lessons when it comes to Computer Science.

“I learned how to better use loops and if-statements to obtain information from a series of lists,” McComas said.

Tying in a current event like March Madness, which has a worldwide following, to class can be a helpful way for students to make connections between the classroom and the real world.

“My favorite part was looking at the data and organizing and writing code that would specifically single out teams based on their stats,” senior Evan Gagne said.

Although used for an assignment on Canvas, the bracket still represents a source of passion for some students who are ardent college basketball followers.

“Basketball, especially college, is my favorite sport, so I really liked this assignment,” Gagne said. “I also really liked the tie-in with interesting data and challenging programming. I have Purdue winning it all because they are my favorite team and future school.”