Probability & Statistics

The speaker, Monique, welcomes everyone to the fifth GeoGebra webinar focused on newly released math resources for grades 4 through 8. She introduces Steve Phelps, a JRA author and contributor known for his passion for probability and statistics. Steve is excited to discuss using GeoGebra for these subjects. Monique encourages participants to share their background in the chat. Steve begins by praising the new GeoGebra resources for their quality and engagement. He plans to explore probability and statistics tools, incorporating his extensive knowledge. He suggests an instructional arc for teaching probability: intuition, simulation, revision, and calculation, emphasizing the importance of intuition and simulation before calculation.

Steve shares his experience with GeoGebra's resources for teaching medians and box plots. He likes an activity where students can explore medians by moving data points and seeing how the median changes. He discusses the possibility of aligning all points in a line and the impact on the median. Steve also appreciates the feature that allows changing the number of data points to see different outcomes. He then moves on to a practice resource for drawing box and whisker plots, which he finds engaging and suitable for use in a digital classroom setting. He demonstrates how to use the tool, noting its intuitive drag behavior and the importance of aligning data points correctly on the plot.

Steve continues by exploring another GeoGebra resource that compares box plots and dot plots. He shares a classroom activity code for participants to join and try out. He discusses how the new resources are tailored for use in the GeoGebra classroom environment, with a focus on two main tasks. Steve suggests providing students with instructions and suggestions for building box plots and dot plots with specific characteristics, such as a median of five without any dots on five. He demonstrates the tool's capabilities and encourages teachers to try these engaging activities suitable for junior high or late elementary school students learning about box and whisker plots.

Steve shares personal resources he has created, starting with an ice cream prices activity that introduces students to dice probabilities. The activity involves rolling two dice to determine the price of an ice cream cone, with the larger number representing the tens place and the smaller the units place. Steve discusses the counterintuitive outcomes and variations of the activity, such as using three dice or calculating the average price instead of the median. He also mentions a search page for simulations based on AP statistics questions, including a lotto ticket simulation and a housing simulation.

Steve introduces 'March Randomness,' a 12-day activity where he poses random questions, and students make statistical bets using 'stat coins.' The bets are based on confidence in their guesses, and the outcomes are determined by experiments that Steve records. He demonstrates a simulation of flipping a coin four times to get exactly one head and shows how the results update in a table. Steve also explains the binomial calculation for this scenario, using a generating function approach suitable for high school students. He encourages exploration of the resources and offers his social media contacts for further assistance.

Monique wraps up the webinar, reminding participants about the next session in March, which will focus on measurement. She provides information on how to register using a QR code and assures that the presentation will be available, including all the links shared by Steve. Monique emphasizes that all resources are free and can be combined and mixed. She invites feedback and suggestions for resource development and thanks everyone for their time, looking forward to seeing them at the next webinar.