Today was SOOOO much fun! Students spent the day playing probability games their peers created using their knowledge of games of chance. We just finished our probability unit last week. Instead of assessing the students with an unit test I decided to do a unit project. Another 7th grade teacher created a carnival game project where students create a game that involves chance rather than skill. We provided a rubric which required a scale model game (that could be played), directions to play the game, theoretical probability, experimental probability and expected payout. Students worked in pairs and created a game for our carnival during class. The project took about 3 days and we held the carnival on the 4th day.
My students took turns running their games and playing other students' games. The other 7th grade math teachers sent groups of 5 students over to test our games. I gave each student a stamp card which was their "payment" to play the games (usually one stamp). This was helpful for visiting students because they went back to class when their stamps were used.
I provided the "baseline" reward which was candy. If students wanted leveled prizes they had to bring in the extra prizes. Students brought in extra candy, stuffed animals, bouncy balls and fancy pencils.
Two pairs of students did maze games where the dice decided your path.
We had versions of the duck game. One group used ducks, another used floating fish, and the third group used "lilly" pads.
This duck game had dice involved. you had to pick a duck that match the sum of the dice your rolled.
We also had the lollipop pull! We had to discuss how the probability of pulling a lollipop with a dot on the bottom changed as lollipops were pulled. It was great problem solving for the students to figure out how they were going to keep their probability the same.
We had MANY marble games - choose color combinations to earn a reward!
This group used string instead of marbles...
We also had MANY dice games....
And lastly we had spinners...
"Flick the finger" made me a little nervous- Thank goodness they did not trace their middle finger!
Our last day of school was suppose to be Thursday but we have to make up emergency days from the cold winter. This was a great way to start our countdown to summer! I love that students had fun playing games but math was involved in each game!
What a great idea!! Along with creating the games, have you every had students create probability problems as well. These could be compiled into a 'Carnival Assessment' of some sort : )
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I am your newest follower...I can't wait to check out your blog and to see what other great ideas you post!
ReplyDeleteChristine
The Math Nerdette
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ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to teach probability to the students!
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This is great! I love how much fun this is! I was wondering how you got so much variety? Did you provide ideas of different kinds of games that they could choose and give them freedom from there? or did they just do research and decide something purely from that?
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. Would you mind sharing your rubric/directions sheet? Or do you have a tpt site?m
ReplyDeleteWas there any discussion about what a "fair" game is, or were they asked to describe if they had created a "fair" game?
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ReplyDeleteThis sounds perfect for my upcoming lesson! Would you mind sharing your directions and rubric?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to teach probability! I am currently a college student looking forward to becoming a teacher. Currently, in my math class we have been discussing how making Math not only fun, but also relevant to life is the way we get students interested in math as well as teach them to be life long math learners. Although, I hope all my future students wont be starting casinos out of their homes, this is a great way to make math real. The student not only have to understand probability to make a game, but this allowed them a hands-on experience in probability. I also enjoyed that other students were invited into your classroom to participate. This gave your students a live audience to experience if their game was fair or if the "house" had an advantage. Great project! One thing I am left wondering is how did you get your students to have such a variety of games? Did you only allow a certain number of dice games, spinner games, etc?
ReplyDeleteHow do you get your students started on this project? What information/what do you teach beforehand?
ReplyDeleteThis is perfect as one of my math teachers came up with a similar idea yesterday and wanted me to look into it. Can you share any of the information, handouts, rubrics, etc, that were given to students??
ReplyDeleteCan you share your project description?
ReplyDeleteWould you be willing to share your rubric? I love this idea, but have never implemented something like this before!
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! It is far more engaging than just going through the lessons and taking a test at the end of the probability chapter. My seventh graders always seem to struggle to grasp probability concepts, even with hands-on activities. I think creating the situations themselves will facilitate a deeper experience with the concepts. The one thing I wonder about is that you pointed out many of the activities revolves around marbles in a bag. Could you institute some sort of sign up to generate more variety?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great activity for your unit. I would love to do something like this with my students. Would you be willing to share your rubric with me?
ReplyDeletevery wonderful
ReplyDeleteCan you send to me how to make such games
I love the idea of having a probability carnival. Last year, I taught a unit on probability and could not come up with a good enough, fun, interactive or hands-on activity. Your idea is by far the best one I have come across. I like how you had the students come up with the probability games. That is an even better idea so that you don’t have to reinvent a handful of different activities. I like that you gave the students the responsibility and the creativity. The variety of games your students came up with covered the basics of probability with the dice, spinner and randomly choosing an item type of games. They were all awesome from your descriptions and pictures. I also liked that you had other students from other classes come to play the games. I think this would also work on a larger scale for something similar to an expo. At my school we are in teams, we could have the whole team come and play the different probability games for a team activity. I overall love your idea and cannot wait to try this in my own classroom.
ReplyDeleteNice
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