Title of Activity: Probability for a six - sided die

Grade Level 4 +

Name Dr. Robert Sweetland

Concept Assessment Information

Concepts

Supporting Information

Misconceptions

Assessment

A fair die has equal probability for each side.

Or

The probability of an outcome is the number of specific outcomes out of the total number of all possible outcomes of one event.

A die has six sides.

The numbers on a die are 1 - 6.

Each number appears only once.

Each side has an equal chance of being rolled. (The die is fair.) Each side same size...

I can cause a certain number to be rolled (blowing, throw hard, throw a certain way...).

It is magic.

Diagnostic

What is the probability to roll a 4 on a 6 sided die?

Summative

Generative

Predict the probabilities of a die other than six - sided.

Predict the probabilities for an equally partitioned spinner.

Probabilities of equal numbers of socks of different colors in a drawer.

Activity Objective

Students predict what will happen if they roll one die 36 times, roll one die 36 times, record data, organize data onto a graph, analyze the data, and explain the pattern they found and predict what would happen with different sided die.

Materials Die, pencil, paper

Exploration Procedure

1. Ask the students to predict what the outcome would be if they roll a die 36 times. Record all predictions on the board.
2. Ask them to explain how they know their answer could be accurate.
3. Have the students roll the die and collect the data.

Invention Procedure

1. Ask students how to display date. If students do not know how to arrange data have them chart the number of rolls for each roll 1 - 6 (1 - 6 horizontal axis, # rolls vertical axis).
2. Students put their data on the board.
3. Analyze the data.
4. Possible questions:
5. What number turned up most?
6. What number would you predict would turn up most if you did it again?
7. What are the odds of a certain number turning up?
8. What did you discover from the data?
9. Have students communicate the concept in several ways.

Discovery Activity

1. Ask the students what would happen if they rolled different die with different amounts of sides.
2. What if they had a spinner with four equally distributed colors of red, blue, green, and yellow?
3. What if they had a sock drawer with three white and three black socks?.