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KITES: Food for Thought - Math B

Activity

KITES: Food for Thought - Math B

Grade Levels

10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade

Course, Subject

Author

Adapted from the NYS Department of Education publication, A Toolkit for Mathematics Educators: Key Idea Tasks to Enhance Success (KITES)

Description

Through the use of teacher-made food cards the students will explore the concepts involved in the world of uncertainty. Students in the primary grades begin with the simple notion of “more than, less than, or same as.” As students progress through the middle and high school grades, they develop an understanding of the concepts of tree diagrams, counting principle, combinations, permutations, and Bernoulli principle. The series of activities presented will help students develop a deeper understanding of probability and the place it has in their lives. Food cards are used as the theme for these activities, but any topic can easily be substituted to fit the needs of an individual classroom.

Related Activities


  1. The teacher will create sets of 10 food cards containing one meat and one vegetable - 5 copies of each card (e.g., 5 trukeys and 5 carrots).
  2. Repeat, using different situations (e.g., "exactly 2 meats in 4 choices," etc.).
  3. Have the students make a "square" game board by using 1 meat and 3 vegetable cards. (Put the other cards aside. They will not be used at this time.) Before starting, have the students decide what the rules for a penny dropping game should be, including "do-over" situations like landing on a line.
  4. Discuss the probability that various events will occur. "What is the probability that if a penny is dropped onto the game board, it will land on a vegetable card P(V)?" "What is the probability that it will land on a meat card P(M)?" Discuss the concept that p(M) = P(~V). Discuss the probability of one of the scenarios discovered in Part 1. "What is you were to drop the penny 5 times and you wanted to get exactly 2 vegetables?" One possibility is MVMVM.
  5. Continue discussion with regard to the fact that this scenario, "exactly 2 vegetable cards in five tries" occurs 10 times (as determined in Part 1). Therefore, multiply by 10 to get the probability
  6. Repeat this activity, using "exactly one vegetable in 5 tries" or "exactly 2 meats in 4 tries." This should lead to the Bernoulli formula:
  7. Expand this activity to explore the concepts ,b>at least and at most
  8. There should be a review of the concepts and, or, not, with replacement, without replacement, and factorial.
  9. Have the students remove 2 vegetable cards and 3 meat cards from the deck. Using the cards as visuals, the students will display all the ways to get "exactly 2 vegetable cards if five cards are being drawn." - At this time don't discuss the probability aspect - just the possible arrangments (e.g., MMVVM, MVMVM, etc [10 possible arrangements]).
  10. Repeat this activity, using differentt number of desired vegetable cards (e.g., "exactly 1 vegetable card if 5 cards are drawn").
  11. Show the students that the combination formula gives them those numbers
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