Sixth grade math students are exploring probability. They recently investigated the role that the number of trials plays in the relationship between experimental and theoretical probability.
Mr. Zippin started the lesson by telling the sixth graders that he would be spinning a mystery spinner. He asked, “What do you need to know to figure out what the mystery spinner looks like?”
They answered that they would need to know what colors were on the spinner and the size of each sector. Instead of answering, Mr. Zippin spun the spinner once and announced “Green!” and asked “Do you think you have enough information to draw the spinner now?” The consensus was no, unless the spinner was all green.
Mr. Zippin then spun the spinner 5 more times and had the students keep track of the results. They then drew what they thought the spinner looked like after 6 spins. He spun the spinner 6 more times and again stopped. The students discussed with their teams what the spinner looked like and then drew the spinner based on the new information they received.
As a class, the sixth graders discussed when they thought they would have enough information to draw an exact spinner. There was a large range of opinions from 24 to 100. Mr. Zippin spun the spinner 36 more times for a total of 48 and had the students draw their final predictions of the spinner.
Then, the class looked at the spinner Mr. Zippin had spun and the teams discussed which of their predicted spinners was closest to the actual spinner. They noticed how the actual occurrences of each color compared to their theoretical predictions. As they spun the spinner more times, the experimental outcomes got closer to the theoretical probability. Take a look at the included pictures and see if you can guess what the Mystery Spinner looked like!
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