March Mammal Madness (MMM), an annual event at South Windsor High School, takes place this year from March 10 to April 2. The global competition challenges participants to predict the outcomes of fictional animal battles to determine a winner.
Each year, a new bracket is created and shown to students all around the world. MMM is something students can look forward to.
“March is a very long month so I love that MMM is an opportunity for my students and I to take a short break every once in a while to discuss the results and learn new things about interesting animals,” SWHS biology teacher Katharine Karasinski said.
There are 64 species on the bracket. Animals can range from lions and elephants to mole-rats and moths.
“It adds some context to the things we have learned regarding evolution,” Karasinski explained. “It helps keep students interested, and it’s also an opportunity to start talking about ecology topics, which we will learn later in the year.”
These species are always against each other in the best fake scenarios to create some type of drama.
Usually, each year, the Rodent Roundtable on Youtube Channel covers updates about the tournament and talks about the results/matchups.
The goal for this event is to excite people and give students the opportunity to learn about new and unique animals. Karasinski believes March Mammal Madness is a great way to learn about really interesting animals that you wouldn’t have otherwise heard of.
When the tournament starts, teachers get ready and start posting their brackets, predictions and introduction to it.
“This is my fourth year participating in MMM. It’s very fun and silly, the perfect mix of science, random chance, and fun,” Karasinski said.
Each year, the winner is determined by each “correct” prediction. Participants earn points, and the points get higher as the competition gets closer to the end. The highest overall score wins the game. Using this method, this could determine the winners in each biology/science class. A lot of teachers compare their scores with the whole class, and all the other teachers do the same as well.
“We even have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies that are awarded to the teachers whose classes earn the highest scores!” Karasinski explained. “Every teacher does this differently. It’s mostly for bragging rights and a couple of extra credit points.”
Janet Belval, SWHS instructional coach and former science teacher, is currently one of the teachers with the highest score (13/220). As a zoology major in college, March Mammal Madness is “right up my [Belval’s] alley.”
“I just think it’s fun,” Belval said. “You get to see animals you’ve never really seen before and you get to learn a little bit about them.”
When the tournament is over, each teacher will begin their ecology unit, which discusses how different species interact with each other in the natural world. These teachers will use MMM animals as examples wherever possible.
