“Are we going to do something fun in math today?”

I just completed the online course in Probability and am looking forward to my next course which is Statistics. I gain a depth of understanding that I did not previously have with every course that I take in this program. In each class I learn strategies for teaching and how students learn best which helps me to become a more effective teacher. In the Probability course I learned the importance of addressing both theoretical and experimental probability. A simple but powerful way to do this is by allowing students to play games of probability. How many times have students greeted you with the question “Are we going to do something fun in math today?” I have been asked this question countless times and now, when we are beginning a unit on probability, I can finally answer “Yes!” As students play a game, you can assess their understanding of probability by asking them the simple question “Is this game fair?” When they attempt to answer this question, one can ask them to explain how they know whether or not the game is fair. One can easily extend this activity by asking students to design a fair game. This hands-on experience helps students to learn about and understand experimental and theoretical probability.
In this course we had the opportunity to design a game that we could use in our classrooms to help students understand experimental and theoretical probability. We were asked to play this game with some children over the summer and report on our findings. I played the game I designed with children from the ages of 5 to 16 and saw the benefits and learning that occurred for children of all ages. One of my favorite memories this summer is playing the probability game on the beach with a daughter of one of my friends. The game was very engaging and the young lady did not realize she was part of a mathematical experiment. When I asked this child to tell me about her favorite part of the game, she simply stated “I liked that we could play this game on the beach and it was FUN!” I learned a great deal from this activity and plan to incorporate the “Fair Game” activity into my lesson plans next year as it is a powerful learning tool.