Welcome to my Genius Hour

Hello and welcome to my classmates, colleagues and all others who chose to peruse my blog (including but not limited to family, friends, hockey enthusiasts, math lovers and the entire Internet world!). My name is Alicia and I am excited to have you on board as I embark on my first ever Genius Hour Journey. 

For those of you new to Genius Hour, it was created by Google and allows their employees to research any particular thought-provoking question which they are passionate about. A thought-provoking question cannot simply be answered by a quick Google search or one sentence. 

As a future teacher exploring the realms of Genius Hour in an instructional strategies and computer technology course, I am anticipating what the next few weeks have in store for me regarding my Genius Hour question as well as the different forms of technology that I will be using throughout the course. 

You may now be wondering what my Genius Hour question is. My question is: Who is likely to win the NHL 2014-2015 Stanley Cup? 

As a Math student and teacher who lives and breathes numbers, formulas and algorithms, I am hoping to use my general knowledge of statistics and probabilities as well as previous attempts found on the internet to predict the winner using team statistics from previous years. There may or may not be a rhyme or reason to the statistical tests I choose since I am no hockey analyst and all of my testing will be done based on my knowledge of the statistical tests used and will be explained as I go along.  By analyzing the trends of the past decade or so of NHL seasons, I also hope to notice patterns among the data collection and previous winners to further help my winning choice. After concluding a winner based on dating back a few seasons (since you know, history repeats itself), I will compare these results with the current NHL standings. In the end as a fun addition will include an EA Sports NHL 15 Season Simulation on my Xbox 360 to see how my team does in the simulated standings. 

To measure my progress, it is essential for this kind of project to be structured with time management. I will be keeping weekly reflections and blog posts here to track my journey. Similarly, I will ensure that each of the 'checkpoints' in this class are completed on a timely manner. My goal is before week 6 to be done the statistical analysis, week 7 and 8 will be devoted to commentary and comparisons to the current season at the time, week 9 will be when I conduct the NHL 15 simulation and week 10 will be a reflection on the journey. 

Well, now is the time to get started! Thank you for reading and feel free to leave any thoughts, questions and comments as I go along.