Probability in Real Life
Probability refers to the likelihood that something will occur. It is generally related to gambling or cards (i.e. the likeliness of drawing a certain card from a deck of cards, the chances of the dice landing on black or red while playing roulette, or the chances of getting specific combinations on slot machines). However, there are many other real life examples of probability affecting our daily life. The textbook mentions discussing how probability appears in sports strategies, such as determining the best strategy to win a game; how probability is used with weather forecasts, such as there being a 70% chance of rain; how you can use probability to make decisions in life, such as flipping a coin, using a spinner, or playing eeny, meany, miney, moe. I have noticed that most of the time you don't perform probability problems (flipping a coin, tossing dice, using a spinner) but rather use subjective probability to help determine the best course of action for yourself (i.e. weighing pros an cons). This would be a good reflection piece to use in a lesson.
The above are alway great examples of how to relate probability to real life when teaching your students. This creates connections, reflections, and relatedness for the students to enhance their learning.
During this past week's class, the activity presentations used awesome manipulatives to teach probability! Brooke used bags with different combinations of blue and red lollipops to show the probability of pulling out specific colours from the bag. Tyler had my group colour our own spinner in a pattern that we want, make predictions about how many times we would spin each colour, and then spin a paper clip ten times recording our results in a tally chart. We then compared our predictions with the results. This related to the curriculum as it requires students to be able determine and represent all the possible outcomes in a simple probability experiment; pose and solve simple probability problems and solve them by conducting probability experiments; as well as selecting appropriate methods of recording the results (e.g. tally chart). This activity also related to reasoning and proving processes by writing down our predictions through looking at the pattern of colours on the spinner and determining the probability of a specific colour on the spinner, and then later on reflecting on our reasoning through proving our actual results.
I believe it is crucial to teach probability as related to real life scenarios, as not only is it a skill that students should have in their real life, but it will also be more easily understood with a real world context. A great activity that I found on YouTube is a video relating the teaching of probability to being stranded on an island. Though this is an unlikely situation, it shows using probability to help decide the most fair way to split up, for example, resources. It also shows how a situation that seems to use "fair" probability may actually not be fair, or the better "odds" you thought you had were actually not as good as your opponents. Thus, it shows the "math" behind probability and how to calculate the better odds. See the video below :)
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| http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=54466&picture=throw-dices Throw Dices |
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicubunuphotos/5262645427 Uncertainty |
The above are alway great examples of how to relate probability to real life when teaching your students. This creates connections, reflections, and relatedness for the students to enhance their learning.
During this past week's class, the activity presentations used awesome manipulatives to teach probability! Brooke used bags with different combinations of blue and red lollipops to show the probability of pulling out specific colours from the bag. Tyler had my group colour our own spinner in a pattern that we want, make predictions about how many times we would spin each colour, and then spin a paper clip ten times recording our results in a tally chart. We then compared our predictions with the results. This related to the curriculum as it requires students to be able determine and represent all the possible outcomes in a simple probability experiment; pose and solve simple probability problems and solve them by conducting probability experiments; as well as selecting appropriate methods of recording the results (e.g. tally chart). This activity also related to reasoning and proving processes by writing down our predictions through looking at the pattern of colours on the spinner and determining the probability of a specific colour on the spinner, and then later on reflecting on our reasoning through proving our actual results.
I believe it is crucial to teach probability as related to real life scenarios, as not only is it a skill that students should have in their real life, but it will also be more easily understood with a real world context. A great activity that I found on YouTube is a video relating the teaching of probability to being stranded on an island. Though this is an unlikely situation, it shows using probability to help decide the most fair way to split up, for example, resources. It also shows how a situation that seems to use "fair" probability may actually not be fair, or the better "odds" you thought you had were actually not as good as your opponents. Thus, it shows the "math" behind probability and how to calculate the better odds. See the video below :)
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