Probability and Statistics Handout

Activities

Sum Game: Instruct the students to find a partner (or you may use one of
the group division methods listed on the previous handout). Give each
student a die (in other words, each pair of students should have a pair of
dice) and instruct them that one person in each pair needs paper &
something to write with. Instruct each student to “roll to see who gets
high,” meaning who rolls the higher number on their die. The person who
“gets high” will get to go first once the game begins. Instruct each pair to
determine which partner is “even” and which is “odd.” Then, the player who
won the right to go first will roll the dice. The students should add the
faces and if the sum is even, the even player earns one point, if the sum is
odd, the odd player earns one point. The students are to take turns rolling
and scoring points until one person reaches 10 points. That player wins that
game and should let you know that someone has won. It is fun to create
something that the winner does/says when they win (e.g. throwing hands in
the air and yelling “oh yeah!”). You will keep a tally of how many wins the
even players score versus how many wins the odd players score. Once a
number of games have been played (depending upon time, it may be three
games per pair or etc.), have the group stop playing. Next, discuss with the
students whether or not they believe it is a “fair” game (defining what that
means to the group). Eventually, lead them to the realization that it is a fair
game with 18/36 chances of rolling an even sum and 18/36 chances of rolling
an odd sum. Sometimes a chart like the following can help (even sums are
shown in red, odd sums are shown in blue):
Sum Faces for Die 1
Faces for Die 1 2 3 4 5 6
2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Product Game: Instruct the students to find a partner (or you may use one
of the group division methods listed on the previous handout). Give each
student a die (in other words, each pair of students should have a pair of
dice) and instruct them that one person in each pair needs paper &
something to write with. Instruct each student to “roll to see who gets
high,” meaning who rolls the higher number on their die. The person who
“gets high” will get to go first once the game begins. Instruct each pair to
determine which partner is “even” and which is “odd.” Then, the player who
won the right to go first will roll the dice. The students should multiply the
faces and if the product is even, the even player earns one point, if the
product is odd, the odd player earns one point. The students are to take
turns rolling and scoring points until one person reaches 10 points. That
player wins that game and should let you know that someone has won. It is
fun to create something that the winner does/says when they win (e.g.
putting one fist in the air and yelling, “Yes!”). You will keep a tally of how
many wins the even players score versus how many wins the odd players
score. Once a number of games have been played (depending upon time, it
may be three games per pair or etc.), have the group stop playing. Next,
discuss with the students whether or not they believe it is a “fair” game
(defining what that means to the group). Eventually, lead them to the
realization that it is not a fair game with 27/36 chances of rolling an even
sum and only 9/36 chances of rolling an odd product. Sometimes a chart like
the following can help (even products are shown in blue, odd products are
shown in red):
Product Faces for Die 1
Faces for Die 1 2 3 4 5 6
2
1 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 2 4 6 8 10 12
3 3 6 9 12 15 18
4 4 8 12 16 20 24
5 5 10 15 20 25 30
6 6 12 18 24 30 36
Definitions

Probability: the likeliness, or chance (or odds), of a certain thing happening.

It is calculated by the number of successes divided by the total number of
possible outcomes. Example: When flipping a coin, there are two possible
outcomes. If you are trying to get “heads”, the number of successes (1)
divided by the total number of possible outcomes (2) yields ½ or 50% chance.

Fair: a game is fair if each player has the same probability of winning as
every other player (and the total of all players’ probabilities must equal
100%). (I.e. For a game with two players, each person must have a 50%
chance of winning. For a game with three players, each person must have a
33 1/3% chance of winning. For a game with four players, each person must
have a 25% chance of winning. And so on.)

Unfair: a game is unfair if each player does not have the same probability of
winning as every other player.