Lessonmaker:EricSoutherland

Teacher
Students
StatsLesson2:CollectingandAnalyzingData
Age/GradeLevel:5th

ContentArea:Mathematics

Objective:Studentswillcreateabargraphusingrandomizedprobabilityusingaspinner
simulation.

INStandard:

7.DSP.6:
Approximate the probability of a chance event by collecting data on the chance
process that produces it and observing its relative frequency from a large sample.

Materials:Excel,spinner,gizmos,andEdmodoforfileupload.

I.
Launch:
Todaywearegoingtocollectandanalyzedataaswespinonaspinner.Once
everyonegatherstheirdata,wewillcompareandseewhateveryoneelsegot.Beforeweget
started,wearegoingtotakealookatafewtermsthatmightbehelpfulfortodayslesson.

CananyonetellmewhatTheoreticalprobabilityis?

Itisthepossibilityofsomethinghappening.

Doyouknowhowtocalculateit?

No,Maybe

Astudentmightcomeupwith(a),butifnotexplainit.

a. Theoreticalprobability
:Ameasureofhowlikelyaneventis.Youcanfindprobability
bydividingthenumberofwaysaneventcanoccurbythetotalnumberofpossible
outcomes.

CananyonetellmewhatExperimentalprobabilityis?

Isitwhenyoudoanexperimentandusetheresults?

Yes,No,Maybe

Astudentmightcomeupwith(b),butifnotexplainit.

b. Experimentalprobability
:Theprobabilitydeterminedbytheresultsfroman
experiment.

Cananyoneremindmewhatfrequencyis?

c. Frequency
:
isthenumberofoccurrencesofarepeatingeventperunit
time
.

II.
Procedure:
Todaywearegoingtobothtypesofprobability.

Wearegoingtousespinnerstoday!

Takeaminuteandlookatthespinners.

Whatdoyouthinktheresultswillbeifwespinthespinner30times?

10ofeachsection

Isthatwhathappened?

No?

Interesting,whydoyouthinkitdidnothappenthatway?

Idontknow?

Well,itgoesbacktothetwotypesofprobabilityweweretalkingabout.Weuseoneto
estimatewhatwethinkwillhappenwhenwehavenodataandweusetheotherwhenwe
havedata.

Splitthestudentsintopairedgroupsandhaveeachgrouprecordtheirresultsusing
highervaluesforeachrunonthespinner.(20,100,200).

StudentswillhaveaworksheettoworkthroughNextsection.

Onceeveryonehascollectedtheirdata,havethestudentscomparetheirresultsand
seehoweachofthedifferentoutcomeswere.Discussasaclass.(Showhowtofusethe
iconstogethertoformabargraph)

Studentswillanswerthefollowingquestions:

1. Whatfractiondoeseachsectionrepresent?
2. WhatshouldtheresultsbewhenIspin30times?
3. Havethespinnerspin30timesusingthe"slow"speedontheslidebaratthe
top.Youwillhavetoholdyourmousebuttondowninorderforthespinnerto
continuetorun.Recordyourresultsandobservethespinnerasitcompletes
the30spins.
4. Isthatwhathappened?
5. Changethenumberofspinsto100clickruntogetanothersetfor100spins.
6. Aretheresultsthesame?
7. clickthe100andseewhathappens.Recordyourresults.
8. clickrunagainfor200to1000andseewhathappens.Recordyourresults
9. Createagraphfor1000spins.

Usingexcelcreatebargraphsasagrouptoshowtheresultsforeachtrialrun.
Comparethegraphresultswhencomparedtoeachother.

Studentexamples:
30spins:
100spins:

200spins:

1000spins:

BarGraph:

Studentswilldiscusshowtheirpredictionscomparetotheiractualfindings.Theywill
discusshowthedifferencesinthenumberofspinsaffecttheamountoftimesthatthespecific
colorischosen.
1. Whyareyourresultsdifferentfromoneanothers?

a. Answer:Theresultsaredifferentfromeachotherbecausetheresults
arerandomized.Notwoanswerswillbethesame.

2. Howdotheseresultscomparetoyourfirstpredictions?

a. Answer:*Studentswillcomparetheirnumberstootherstudents*.The
amountoftimeseachcolorisspunwillonlybeconnectedtotheamount
oftimesthestudentspinsthespinner.

3. Doyouthinkitispossibletobeabletoaccuratelypredicthowmanytimesthe
spinnerwilllandonaspecificcolor?

III.
Assessment:Sametypeofquestionasactivity,butdatahasalreadybeencollected.
A. Studentswillthentakethisdatasetandcreateabargraphusingthenewdata
toseehowoftenacertainprizeisspunwithatotalof100spins.

1. StudentswillsavetheirfilesanduploadthemtoEdmodoforteacher
review.

2. Studentwillcompleteassessmentonexplorelearningwebsite,butwill
emailquestion6totheteacher.

IV.

Extension:Ifthestudentshavemoretimeaftercompletingtheassessment,the
studentswillmakepredictionsofhowofteneachnumberwouldgetpickediftheywere
torollthedice.Thestudentswillthenrollthedice20times,andwillrecordthe
amountoftimesthedicefellonacertainnumber.


V.

Closure:
Todaywehavepredicted,collected,andanalyzedorownsetofdatausingaspinner
tocreateabargraph.Wealsolearnedabouttheoreticalandexperimentalprobabilityand
howtheyrelatetooneanother.Theyarebothcalculatedthesamewayandasmoretrials
andconductedtheresultstendtogetclosertobeingequal.ThisisknownastheLawof
LargeNumberswhichis
theideathatasthenumberoftrialsofarandomprocessincreases,
thepercentagedifferencebetweentheexpectedandactualvaluesgoestozero.
This
probabilityprocedurecanbedoneformanythingsinlife.Howcanyouapplyrandom
probabilitytoyourdaytodaylives?
Rollingdice
Flippingacoin