Penny Flip

Description

            Students will make predictions about the number of times a given penny when flipped will be a head or tail.  They will be asked to chart their progress according to the results they obtain and compare their data with their original predictions.  

Context

            Students will be in the midst of a block integrating mathematical concepts to daily life e.g. weather predictions, games they play, amount of snow days in given year etc.  

Step One

            First students will write down their predictions on the worksheet listing how many heads and how many tails they will flip with a penny. 

Step Two

            Students will flip their penny twenty times and write down on the worksheet flip for flip how many heads and how many tails they tally. 

Step Three

            Students will compare their results with the net results being posted on the board and discuss how the theory of probability increases or decreases according to the number of flips incorporated.

Follow up questions

1.  How did your results differ from the large group?

2.  In what way are averages or the theory of probability affected by a larger or smaller sample?

3.  In what way do you think these results can be related to predictions about the weather, amount of snow days, who wins a game or any other situation that you encounter?