Dice and Distributions (ARC)

Brenden Balch, University of Central Oklahoma
Michael Fulkerson, University of Central Oklahoma
Erin Williams, University of Central Oklahoma

 

This activity uses dice and spreadsheets to investigate empirical data (through dice rolling and data collection, as well as random simulation) as a means to introduce distributions from probabilistic concepts. Through various scenarios (single die, resulting sum of two dice, with an application to games) students strengthen their understanding of the relationship between empirical randomness and theoretical randomness while also encountering histograms/distributions. In particular, students will be exposed to the Law of Large Numbers and expected value through various exercises.

Lesson Plan

Worksheet

Worksheet Solutions

Single Toss Simulator

Many Toss Simulator

 

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0