We experimented rolling two dice. We were to roll the pair of dice 36 times. We had a tally sheet to record the sum of each roll. Before we began rolling she asked us to predict what sum we thought we would get the most. I chose 6 just guessing it would be a number that would be in the middle of my choices.
To make things easier (and to reduce the noise level) instead of actually rolling dice she had us use the probability simulator on the calculator. If you don't have a calculator or dice here is a website that will roll dice for you:
After 36 rolls, these were my results:
Then she gave us a worksheet to figure out the probability of rolling each sum. Here is a chart that I found that really shows how much more likely you are to roll a 7 than a 2.
Here's a great website with a worksheet and explanations for a similar activity.
I was blown away by the fact that the calculator had a probability simulator. That was the highlight of my day do to that lesson. There was no noise, just students plugging in numbers on the calculator and it actually gave results. I honestly didn't know that those calculators could do that, which might sound a bit silly but I got to say it was a fun activity.
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