Thursday 10 April 2014

What's the chance of that?

I had been working on probability with my year 8 class. We had spent a few lessons looking at theoretical probability, so I thought it was time my students had the opportunity to see the results of experimental probability.

I took in my supply of dice and cards and set the students to work.
For the more traditional dice, the students were asked to record what number was rolled.
For other dice they were asked to record if they rolled a prime or composite number.
Or if the number they rolled was 10 or less or greater than 10.
 Whether the number rolled was odd or even

For the cards, some were asked to record whether the card selected was red or black, what suit was selected, or whether it was a picture card or not.
Some students also demonstrated their great shuffling skills.

I did this activity in the second period of a double, last period of the day. It worked well to keep the students engaged and provided an opportunity for them to see probability in a practical sense.

2 comments:

  1. Could I ask what is your source for your dice kit? It looks like so much fun!!

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    1. Hi, I am in Australia so I'm not sure how helpful this will be for you. I got the dice from Modern Teaching Aids (MTA), http://www.teaching.com.au/, perhaps they have an affiliate near you.

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