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The Dice Problem

Big idea of the


lesson or
mathematical
concept:
Specific Learning
Outcomes:

Roy Herpin III

This lesson will give the students more practice with counting and
probability of independent and dependent events. Additionally,
they will gain an understanding of mutually exclusive events.

By the end of this lesson students will be able to:


Correctly distinguish between mutually exclusive and non-mutually
exclusive events
Create a sample space of all possible events in a context
Know when to use a union and/or intersection of events in a
context

Standards the
lesson addresses

What definitions,
concepts, or
ideas do students
need to know in
order to begin to
work on the
task?
What
misconceptions
might students
have? What
errors might
students make?
What might be
problematic for
students? What
might you do to
address this?

Students need to understand and be able to apply:


Probability of independent/dependent events
Probability notation (P(A), P(B), P(A B), etc.)
Intersection and union of events/sets

Students might not understand how to combine the possible


outcomes into appropriate sets (even sum, odd product, etc.)
Students might mix up even/odd sums and products with even/odd
numbers rolled on individual dice
Students might consistently make mistakes when grouping the
unions and/or intersections
Students may confuse mutually exclusive events with independent
events (they may think independent means p=0)
Students may be confused when they get a probability of 0 and not
understand why or think they made a mistake

How will you


introduce

Start with introduction to probability (how to find the probability of


an event and intersections and unions of events.) Review the

The Dice Problem


students to the
activity so as not
to reduce the
demands of the
task? What will
you hear that lets
you know
students
understand the
task? How will
you engage the
students in the
lesson?

Roy Herpin III


following problem with the class:
Who plays football? Who plays basketball? How do we find the
probability that one student in this class, chosen at random, plays
football? Plays basketball? Plays both? Plays either or?
Walk through parts a and b with the class;
a) ( )
b) ( )
Give students a short amount of time to do parts c and d;
c) ( )
d) ([ ] )
Have students explain their work at the board. Give introduction to
dice problem

What questions
will you ask
students who are
struggling?

What questions
will you ask
students who are
getting it?

What does the sample space represent?


What does it mean to have an even sum/product?
How do you find the probability of an event?
What is the maximum/minimum probability of an event?
If we know what the probability is that something doesnt happen,
how will that help us?

Do we need the sample space to find the answers? How could we


find them without it?
Does it matter that these are six-sided dice? How would that change
our answers?
How would we find the probability that
The quotient is an integer?
The difference is a factor of 25, 40, 100, etc.
The product/sum is prime
Come up with some difficult probabilities that you could solve and
explain to me or the class (maybe extra credit for the class).

Learning Activities (in order)


Students will work through introductory examples. Students will explain their work at
the board and teach the class how to solve similar problems. Then they will move to the
dice problem.

The Dice Problem

Roy Herpin III

Rolling 2, 6-sided dice


a. Find sample space of the sum
b. Find sample space of the product
c. Find ( )
d. Find ( )
e. Find ( ), are they independent/dep., mutually exclusive/non
f. Find ( < 9)
g. Find ([ < 9] [ 15]), are they indep./dep, mutually exclusive/non
Show students how to make a sample space. Walk them through part A. Then, walk
them through how to find the probability of getting an odd sum.
Give students the remainder of the class to finish dice problems. Students can work
individually, in partners, or in small groups (up to 4).
If students finish early, explain and review at board. Use part G as extension/
extended learning.
Resources needed / used
Dice (2 per group)
Paper and pencil
Whiteboard/chalkboard and utensils or Elmo and projector
Calculator (1 per group) *not a need but helpful for double checking and getting
accurate decimals
Assessment Tasks
and Criteria:
The teacher can test for understanding through the class
discussion/introduction; creating the sample space, discussing
independent/dependent probabilities done in previous classes, and
walking through the first couple problems.
Additionally, during group work, and explaining at the board the
teacher can gauge understanding.
Future plans:
The next session will be a review day for the probability section of
the test which will include mutually exclusive events, independent
and dependent events, and combinatorics.

The Dice Problem

Roy Herpin III


Lesson Plan Reflection

1. What parts of the lesson were more effective? What went well in your teaching? What
evidence can you provide?
Dice Problem- good level of difficulty for the class, nice pace of increasing
difficulty, students asked critical/important questions that show their thinking at
a deeper level to try and fully understand/prove their points
For example; student asked how to solve if we didnt have the sample space, and
then students asked if we had infinity sided dice.
2. What parts of the lesson were less effective? What didnt go as well in your teaching?
What evidence can you provide?
I wasnt really prepared for the questions the students asked about the infinite
sided dice and not having a sample space so I could have planned for those type
of questions.
I didnt know how much experience they had in proofs so I had to guess. I wish I
could have known more of their experience to cover the proof accurately
according to their level of understanding of proofs. Also, I wish I would have
done less scaffolding of the proof. I didnt hold their hand through all of it but I
would have liked to spend more time with them exploring it on their own.
3. What aspects of the lesson did not go as planned? How did you address this? Provide
support.
The proof that I was in no way expecting or ready for. I totally came up with a
proof on the fly. I remember my mind racing a million miles an hour and
thinking, Oh crap, Im really going to have to do a proof with two infinity sideddice off the top of my head.
4. If you were to teach this lesson again, what would you change or do differently? Why?
I have no idea how I would have even though of an infinite sided dice question
so I think some of that just has to be experienced. Plus I wouldnt trade those
few moments that I experienced for the world. That was such an amazing thing
to do with them on the fly and I was proud of myself and the students for asking
that level of question.
5. What insights did you gain from teaching this lesson?
Students are brilliant, and I need to start expecting and planning for extremely
high level thinking and understanding and just being ok if I did too much and
they didnt need it.

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