Lesson Plan

Year level(s)_4_______________
Learning area/ACARA focus_Statistics &
Probablilty
Date/Time 21/8/14, 9:20am_____ Lesson Focus___Chance______________

9:20 K to clap rhythm for attention, children respond with a repetition clap.

Introduction:

Can anyone tell what Random Chance means? name children one at a
time who has their hand up and allow them time to answer the question,
respond with a comment regarding how close the right answer or
acknowledge a good try.

If no child answers correctly, ask a child to get a dictionary and read the
definition to the class.

Hands up if you think that you can predict what will happen if an event is
random

Hands up if you think you cant predict what will happen

What are some examples of random events? Respond to each child by
agreeing or correcting the answers.

(Some examples: coin toss, dice, well shuffled playing cards, Lottery, raffle,
Pass the Parcel and Pin the Tail on the Donkey (when played properly),
lightning (sometimes i.e. no tall metal structures around), raindrop patterns
etc)

If no one says coin toss, suggest it.

Can anyone tell me what probability means?

If something is truly random, would the probability of tossing a head be the
same as tossing a tail? Why? Ask several children.

Ask the class assistants to hand out the worksheet.

Explanation of experiment:

Today we will do an experiment to test random chance. We are going to toss
a coin several times and see how many times it lands on heads and how
many times it will land on tails. We will toss the coin 10 times, and you write
H for head or T for tail in the box on the first table. At the end of 10 tosses,
we will tally up the results, but before we toss the coin I want you have a think
and predict how many times we will toss the coin and get a head and how
many times we will get a tail. Write the number what you think will happen on
your worksheets under the first table.
Also, after we have flipped the coin 10 times we will repeat the experiment to
see if we always get the same result. In total we will do 40 coin tosses, I want
you think about how many times heads will come up from 40 tosses, and how
many times you will get tails. At the bottom of the page where you will find the
word Total, write you answer for what you predict will happen with 40 tosses.

Hands up if you think the first toss will be a Head. Now hands up if you think
it will be a tail. Lets find out

Toss coin.

{Write H.. or Write T in the box. Now We just had a ___, what do you
think the next toss will be? Hands up if you think it will be a head. Hand up if
you think it will be a tail. Select several students to give reasons. Lets find
out

Toss Coin.} Repeat

Toss the coin until 10 tosses are complete.

[How many Heads were there? How many tails were there? Was that
what you predicted? If no Why not?, if yes How did you know? Was it
simply a good guess?

Lets try 10 more tosses and see if we get the same result. Write your
prediction under the next table. Out of 10, how many will be heads and how
many will be tails?

Toss coin 10 times] x3

Lets tally up the total out of 40 tosses. How many heads were there? How
many tails were there? Was that what you predicted? If no Why not?, if
yes How did you know? Was it simply a good guess?

Can we predict the outcome of random events?

Can we predict a single random event? Or is purely a guess? Why?

Think about predicting the outcome of lots of random events, like a coin toss.
Was our prediction close the results of the experiment? Was it a better guess
for 40 than 10 tosses? Why?

Can we predict the probability of a random event? How?

Conclusion Can we predict the outcome of a random event? NO
Can we predict the probability (chance) of a random event? YES

*Editors Note: This was my very first lesson plan and I didnt use the headings on the
lesson plan form provided as I was getting my head around how to present the
lesson (logistically) to the class. As a result I forgot to include the learning outcomes
and assessment as part of my written plan, even though I had this information at
hand. This was corrected in subsequent lesson planning