A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO PROBABILITY<br>IN THE CONTEXT OF A SCIENCE FAIR


Authors: 
Hugo M. Hern&aacute;ndez Trevethan, Ver&ocirc;nica Y. Kataoka,<br>&amp; Marcelo da Silva Oliveira
Volume: 
4(3)
Pages: 
online
Year: 
2009
Publisher: 
International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education
URL: 
http://www.iejme.com/032009/IEJME_p14_Trevethan_E.pdf
Abstract: 

In a society that generates information rapidly, schools have to fulfil their programmes<br>imaginatively. Thus, extra-curricular activities may be helpful for the students to acquire wider knowledge<br>than that they may get within the classrooms. On the other hand, randomness is present in almost all everyday<br>decisions, mainly based on prior information so it is important to have at least a rough idea on how specific<br>events may affect the chances of other events. We explore both ideas here in the context of a science fair, in<br>which two high-school senior students conducted an investigation about conditional probability using a game<br>called "Shut the box". We also want to pose, as a research question, if, after their participation in the science<br>fair, these students have reached higher levels in probabilistic reasoning compared to their classmates or have<br>acquired knowledge about concepts far beyond the official curriculum.

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education