Experimental Probability

Today at WA in 5th Grade Math (because of no school on Friday, L & C is a week behind) we discussed Experimental Probability. The students were given a scenario that they and a friend were waiting for ice cream. They were going to flip a coin to see who would go first- they REALLY wanted to go first- would they pick heads or tails???

They had to set up an experiment to test their hypothesis. They decided to do 20 trials (new vocabulary word meaning one round of an experiment). They had to write their results in proper notation: P(H)= 9/20 P(T)= 11/20. They were taught that the top number for Experimental Probability is the number of times an event occurs OVER the number of total trials.

Our classroom results were as follows

P(H)= 10/20, 7/20, 10/20, 11/20, 11/20, 10/20, 10/20 = 69/140

P(T)=  10/20, 13/20, 10/20, 9/20, 9/20, 10/20, 10/20 = 71/140

We decided that it is a 1/2 chance of getting heads or tails. We will start discussing theoretical probability next week.

We ended with a fun round of college bowl!

Have a great week!