I had to plan for the last 6 teaching days with my grade 8 math classes, and after that we are into exam review and end-of-year trips. We had not yet covered probability, so I thought that I could design some mini-activities to carry out over these six days.
Here is my plan for the six days:
Day 1:
-Introduce terminology (probability, theoretical probability, experimental probability)
-Each student is given an activity to carry out with either dice or spinners (see attachment below)
-Discussion of theoretical and experimental probability as related to the dice and spinner activities
Days 2/3:
-Introduce game assignment (see attachment below)
-Allow time for students to decide if they are working alone or in small groups
-Planning time for students to organize the activity
Days 4/5/6:
-Students lead activities for class
-Class discussions of how each activity went and how other factors might have come into play. Classmates suggest ideas for improvement.
We just finished the first day of activities in one of the classes, and already students are learning how to modify their activities based on how the first ones went.
We will play some more tomorrow.
