How do you teach it?????

At some point we have to teach either probability or statistics either as a part of our regular math classes or as a stand alone class.  Not many of the books I use have really interesting lessons to use other than the standard penny flips and possibly the rock, scissors, paper game. 

I'm always open for some ideas to use in my classroom.  I've found a few and its time to share them with you. 

Fortunately, the American Statistical Association has some lovely peer reviewed lessons for teaching statistics.  The lesson are designed for grades K to 12 so if you have students who are not up to grade level, you can choose something designed for younger students or take a lesson and adjust it upwards. 

For middle school, a couple of lessons really caught my interest.  The first is "How random is the iPod's shuffle" which many students easily relate to because they use the shuffle button.  The other is "How long is 30 seconds?" which appeals to me because most students I know who try to count 30 seconds tend to rush it so they finish about five seconds ahead of the time.

High School has a lesson "Confidence in Salaries in Petroleum Engineering" examines the salaries in a field which is said to have one of the highest starting salaries for any profession.  Another one, "10,000 steps" examines one of the newest fitness trend which states you need 10,000 steps per day to stay healthy.

These are not one page lessons but more like 15 to 30 pages depending on the lesson.  They come complete with the objective, standards, materials, student sheets, etc. Everything needed to carry out the lessons properly.

Most of us have to introduce students to probability in a way they don't get bored or allows them to get up and move around.  What about setting up a QR game with 16 QR codes spread around the room and each QR code asks a probability question.  The question might be something like "You flipped two coins, what are the four possible answers?"  The student then writes the answer down on the answer sheet.  If you don't have the digital device, you could create the 16 questions and post them around the room.

Shodor.org has a really nice interactive spinner which the student to change the number of segments so students change check out the probabilities for different scenario's.  In addition, there are activities on fair chances, coin toss, theoretical vs experimental probability, and random number generators.  There are also worksheets and discussions. 

In addition, you could introduce probability using Bill Nye the science guy.  Episode S04E08 can be found on School Tube or You Tube.  Bill Nye is a fun person to watch as he explains an assortment of topics. 

The above probability activities are to teach simple probability but what about complex probability such as you have to remove two marbles without returning them to the mix.  How does that change things?  Tomorrow, we'll look at activities for complex probability.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.