6-8, 9-12
This activity demonstrates the Birthday Paradox, using it as a springboard into a unit on probability. Students use a graphing calculator to run a Monte Carlo simulation with the birthday paradox and perform a graphical analysis of the birthday-problem function. This lesson was adapted from an article, written by Matthew Whitney, which appeared in the April 2001 edition of
Mathematics Teacher.
6-8, 9-12
This lesson plan presents a classic game-show scenario. A student picks
one of three doors in the hopes of winning the prize. The host, who
knows the door behind which the prize is hidden, opens one of the two
remaining doors. When no prize is revealed, the host asks if the
student wishes to "stick or switch." Which choice gives you the best
chance to win? The approach in this activity runs from guesses to
experiments to computer simulations to theoretical models. This lesson
was adapted from an article written by J. Michael Shaughnessy and
Thomas Dick, which appeared in the April 1991 issue of the
Mathematics Teacher.
6-8
The paper pool game provides an opportunity for students to develop their understanding of ratio, proportion, greatest common divisor, and least common multiple.
6-8
The interactive paper pool game in this i-Math investigation provides an opportunity for students to further develop their understanding of ratio, proportion, and least common multiple.
6-8
The interactive paper pool game in this i-Math investigation provides an opportunity for students to further develop their understanding of ratio, proportion, and least common multiple.
6-8
In this lesson, students will compare the price of a toll to the distance traveled. Students will investigate data numerically and graphically to determine the per-mile charge, and they will predict the cost if a new tollbooth were added along the route.
3-5, 6-8
Students will play
Sticks and Stones, a game based on the Apache
game "Throw Sticks," which was played at multi-nation celebrations.
Students will collect data, investigate the likelihood of various
moves, and use basic ideas of expected value to determine the average
number of turns needed to win a game.
6-8
In the following lessons of this unit, students will have an opportunity to fully explore the patterns that result from the Paper Pool game. In this lesson, however, students will only spend time learning the rules, playing the game, and collecting data.
6-8
Students will continue their investigation of the Paper Pool game by exploring more tables and organizing the results. Using the data that they collect, they will attempt to find a relationship between the size of the table, the number of hits that occur, and the pocket in which the ball lands.
6-8
In the first four lessons of this unit, students investigated the Paper Pool game, collected data, identified patterns, and made predictions about the number of hits, the pocket in which the ball lands, and the path of travel. In this lesson, students finalize their work and write a report that summarizes all of their findings.
