So, today in class we played rock, paper, scissors! Math was involved, so don't worry and it was still fun. We worked in pairs and played 45 games of rock, paper, scissors. I was paired with Amber, enough said. Now, after each game we would record the outcomes and put tally marks in a matrix, like this one:
Under the same idea circumstances you could take this game and analyze it using a tree diagram. The probability of playing/showing a rock, paper or scissor would all be one third. Now lets say you showed a rock for the first game, for the second game you have the same probability of playing/showing a rock, paper or scissor as the first game, one third. If the game rock, paper, scissors was repeated a large number of times, our experimental probabilities would approach a fixed number. This is called Bernoulli's Theorem or Law of Large Numbers.
I never knew the simple game of rock, paper, scissors could help you learn probability in your college level math class, but it can! Also, did you know that there are professional competitions for rock, paper, scissors? Check it out! Until next time, which will probably be tomorrow! :)
Lauren
Ya, that's right, I won!! Haha. That was so fun! I love how we spent the whole hour in a college class playing rock, paper, scissors and yet we still learned a lot! I am definitely incorporating as many activities as I can in my own classroom someday. They work miracles for students trying to understand a concept! It was so cool that our overall game was close to being fair because the probabilities were all close. Thanks for being a worthy opponent! PS. I LOVE your blog! You are hilarious. :)
ReplyDeleteThis game is very tricky but very fun to play. Either you are good or you are alright.I really like how you included how to approach a fixed number.Students definitely all learn in different ways. I thought it was so confusing on 1,2,3 shoot because usually i roll at 3 but when we played in class like that it made sense. Go rock, paper, scissors and great blog.
ReplyDeleteVery informative blog! This was a very fun activity in class and I am a college student! That means that students will have a blast doing this activity and it is great that you uploaded an image of the worksheet for future references!
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