Teacher's Page

Lesson:  The Probability Tour

Grade:  8

Discipline:  Mathematics

Strand:  Statistics and Probability

Topic: Theoretical and Experimental Probability

State Standards:

Students engage in problem solving, communicating, reasoning, connecting, and representing as they:

8.D.1           Describe the characteristics and limitations of a data sample. Identify different ways of selecting a sample, e.g., convenience sampling, responses to a survey, random sampling.

8.D.2           Select, create, interpret, and utilize various tabular and graphical representations of data, e.g., circle graphs, Venn diagrams, scatter plots, stem-and-leaf plots, box-and-whisker plots, histograms, tables, and charts. Differentiate between continuous and discrete data and ways to represent them.

8.D.3           Use tree diagrams, tables, organized lists, basic combinatory (ãfundamental counting principleä), and area models to compute probabilities for simple compound events, e.g., multiple coin tosses or rolls of dice.

Student Outcomes:

• Determine the theoretical probability of an event using a given sample space.
• Conduct experiments and collect data to find experimental probability.
• Compare results of experiments to theoretical expectations.
• Communicate the purpose and results of their experiments.
• Interpret and construct graphs.

Essential Question:

How do the results of an experiment compare to the theoretical expectations of that experiment?

How to differentiate the lesson:

All students will visit and complete all of the activities at the ãintroductionä site to deepen their understanding of theoretical probability.

Assign the other 3 sites as follows:

• The ãbirthdayä site is for students who need to deepen their understanding of conducting an experiment, recording the results and interpreting the results.  Tables will be provided for recording.
• The ãprobable penä site is for students who can conduct an experiment, record the data, interpret the results and compare their results to a histogram.  Tables will be provided for recording.
• The ãdartsä site is for the student who can conduct an experiment, chart their results in a table designed them and make a scatter plot using their results.  These students will have 2 activities to complete.

{Teacher's}    {Probability Tour}    {Birthday Problem}    {Probable Pen}    {Back To DI Math}

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