Jonathan Sot and Gregory Zukowski record data from rolling a die 60 times.(Photo courtesy of Clark Public Schools)
CLARK — Students in Miss Faro’s honors math classes at Kumpf Middle School in Clark have been learning about probability and the chances that certain scenarios will occur as a part of the Progressive Mathematics Initiative curriculum. Using different methods, students have found the probabilities of a deck of cards, a die and a spinner.
The class also related probability to the weather forecast and other day to day occurrences. In an activity, students paired with a classmate to create experimental probability based off of an experiment they designed. Students were given a die and told to roll it 60 times and tally the data. From that point, students used their own data to complete questions and compare it to the theoretical probability of a die. Normally, there is a one on six chance of landing on each number on a die for each roll. Using their experiment as proof, students found that rolling a die 60 times did not give them 10 of each number, but rather, a more varied data set.
Students were able to conclude that the probability of one-sixth related to every time the die was rolled as opposed to their overall experiment. The class enjoyed getting the opportunity to experiment with the dice and make conclusions from their own data.
