It’s probability time in my 9th grade prob and stats class.  Call me crazy for giving 9th graders dice and pennies with a month left of school, but it’s how I roll.  (Ha! I’m cracking up over here!)

I like to start with the Game of Pig, similar to the game used in the IMP curriculum.  I adapted it a little to have kids compare strategies for when playing with their own dice (or separate from their partner) to playing with the same dice as their partner.

It’s interesting to see their strategies develop here.  Some use very solid ideas like “I stopped when my round score reached 20.”  But I also get to see misconceptions like believing that a “one” will be rolled relatively soon after a “two” is rolled.  Having them share their strategies helps me to see where these misconceptions lie and deal with them before we start calculating any concrete probability.

Tomorrow, we’ll start by discussing which of these are legitimate strategies and which of them are not.