Content Area: Math

 

Index: 4.4B Grade 4 CPI 1

 

Standard: 4.4 - Data Analysis, Probability, and Discrete Mathematics

 

Strand: B - Probability

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1 -  The student will use everyday events and chance devices, such as dice, coins, and unevenly divided spinners, to explore concepts of probability

·        Likely, unlikely, certain, impossible, improbable, fair, unfair

·        More likely, less likely, equally likely

·        Probability of tossing “heads” does not depend on outcomes of previous tosses

 

Grade: 4

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Each child in the class rolls a die 20 times and records the outcomes in a frequency table. The class combines the results in a class frequency table. They discuss which outcome occurred most often and least often and then whether the class results differ from their individual results and why that might be.

 

·        Students make their own cubes from cardstock and label the sides 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5. They roll their cubes 20 times each, recording the results. After combining their results, the class discusses the experiment and the reasons the results differ from the results obtained when using a regular die.

 

·        As a question on a class test, students are told that Sarah rolled a die 20 times and she got twelve 1s, two 2s, three 3s, and three 6s. They are asked what they would conclude about Sarah's experiment and what might have accounted for her results.

 

·        Students discuss the probability of getting a zero or a seven on the roll of one die or picking a blue bead from a bag full of blue beads, and use this as an introduction to a discussion about the probability of certain events and impossible events.

 

·        Students discuss the relationship between events such as flipping a coin, a newborn baby being a girl, guessing on a true-false question, and other events which have an approximately equal chance of occurring.