Plan 3: Fair Trials with Two Dice - Project Maths

© Project Maths Development Team 2009 www.projectmaths.ie KEY: » next step • student answer/response 8
Teaching & Learning Plan 3: Fair Trials with Two Dice
Student Learning Tasks:
Teacher Input
»» What is the relationship
between the experimental
approach to calculating
probability and the
theoretical approach
»» How do we calculate the
theoretical probability
of each outcome in this
sample space
»» What assumption are we
making
»» Are all 36 outcomes equally
likely here
»» Construct a probability
table (Student Activity 3)
for the sum of 2 dice using
Student Activity 2A.
»» Assuming that both of the
dice are fair, and all 36
outcomes are equally likely,
what is the probability of
the sum being 5
»» What is the sum of the
probabilities for the sample
space
Student Activities: Possible
and Expected Responses
• As the number of trials
increases the relative
frequency becomes almost
equal to the theoretical
probability.
• How many times it
occurs divided by the
total number of possible
outcomes.
• All outcomes are equally
likely.
• Yes.
Teacher’s Support and
Actions
»» Asks students to recall and
then after a short pause
asks an individual.
»» Walk around observing
students as they fill out the
probability table.
• Using the 2 way table
(Student Activity 2A)
showing the sample space
constructed for the game,
there are 4 outcomes for
5, so the probability of
getting a 5 is 4/36.
• 1
»» Ask students if they
remember this happening
in the last lesson with
outcomes from 1 die
Checking Understanding
»» Can students recall how to
calculate probability for
equally likely outcomes
»» Did students fill out the
table correctly
»» Did all students get 1