5.1 Experimental probability
Have a go at this probability game and then reflect on what it demonstrates.
Activity 17 Horse race
Allow 10 minutes
Several people can play this game (or a whole class can play). Every person chooses a number to represent their horse. They each take it in turns to roll two dice and sum their numbers and when their number comes up they shade one box for their horse.
So if someone gets a 2 and a 3, their total is 5 and they shade one square on the 5 line. The race is won by the first horse to get to the finishing line (that is when all five boxes on their line are shaded).
When the game is finished you should have a horizontal bar chart.
If you do not have any dice, there are simulators available online, for instance:
Activity 18 Reflecting
Allow 5 minutes
Some questions to get you thinking about the activity.
- How did your horse do?
- Did anything surprise you about the results you recorded?
- Was the winning horse one you might have expected to win?
- Did you notice anything about horse number 1?
You will calculate the theoretical probabilities of each horse moving forward in the race later, in Section 5.3.
OpenLearn - Teaching mathematics
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