Projects

These projects complement the resources found in Activities by involving students in deeper thinking about probability over a longer period of time. Each offers background information for the teacher, ideas for classroom discussion, and classroom materials needed (or how to make them). Most important, they draw students into scenarios that pose intriguing questions: In a family of five, is the chance of having all girls greater than the chance of having, say, three girls and two boys? Which slot on a Plinko board will give the highest payoff over time? And, what does probability have to do with winning games?

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The Smithville Families http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/mathline/lessonplans/msmp/smithville/smithville_procedure.shtm

This multi-faceted unit easily converts to a class project. It begins with the number sequences of Pascal's triangle and goes on to discovery of their relationship to theoretical probability. Students first generate several rows of the famous triangle, noting its internal patterns. Then they consider questions relating to the Smithville families, which each has five children: What is the total number of possible girl/boy combinations in a five child family? And what is the theoretical probability of each combination? And how do these questions relate to Pascal’s triangle? MSP full record

Plinko : probability from a game show http://mathdemos.gcsu.edu/mathdemos/plinko/

This is another lesson plan that could profitably expand into a project. Besides all directions and needed diagrams, the resources include an online simulation of Plinko, a game of chance, as well as directions on how to make your own Plinko board. Playing the game, students gather data for investigation into experimental probability. Discussions also open to theoretical probability, including tree diagrams and counting paths that give insight into why game shows arrange the payoffs the way they do. MSP full record

Data Management: A Look at Leisure Activities http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/midlmath/model9.html

Among the lessons in this unit on analyzing data are lessons that require students to consider probability in the context of game playing. They must come up with game strategies based on their calculations of experimental and theoretical probabilities. The entire unit could make up a class project that covers many topics of data gathering, display, and analysis. MSP full record

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Copyright September 2006 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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