Probability Activities With Spinners
Spinners are random color generators to base probability activities on. Probability is the likelihood that a desired outcome will occur expressed as a fraction, proportion or percentage. Experimenting with and constructing spinners to learn how the probability changes when the ratio changes helps in learning this mathematical concept.
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Spinner Hockey
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Make a hockey game board on a 9-by-12-inch piece of tag board. Mark a middle line with a center circle on the board. Draw 10 lines on each side of the halfway mark. Draw a half circle at the line on the edge of the paper to represent the goal line. Color one half of the board green and the other half blue. Place two markers, green and blue, at midfield. Each marker will try to work their way to their goal line on opposite ends of the rink. Give the students a spinner that is half blue and half green. For each spin, the student moves one space in the direction indicated on the spinner. Sometimes the player will move toward his goal, and other turns he will move away from his goal. The player who reaches her goal first wins the game.
Change the spinner to change the game. Make the spinner have four blue and five green sections. Discuss with the class the probability of the green marker winning. Let the students play the new game. Tally up the blue wins and green wins for the entire class to see if their predictions were correct.
Guess the Percentage
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Give pairs of students different spinners. The size and number of each color on the spinners should vary. Ask the students to make a probability prediction about the percentage of times the spinner will land on each of the colors. Provide a tally sheet with the colors listed on it for them to write their predictions. The students perform an experiment to see if their predictions are right. In pairs, one student spins and the other keeps the tally for 50 spins. Then they trade places for another 50 spins. The students figure out the percentages for each color and compare the actual results to their guesses.
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Spinner Matches
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Make spinners with a variety of colors and sector sizes. Hand out the spinners to half of your class. Give probability percentages or ratios of colors to the other half of the class. For instance, the student with the percentages of 25 percent green, 12.5 percent blue, 50 percent yellow and 12.5 percent red looks for the spinner that matches this prescription.
Make the Spinner
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Give the students an outcome and have them make the spinner. Provide the students with a teacher-generated sheet with circles and ratios of colors for the spinners. They transfer the ratio to the circle by finding the percentage and changing it to degrees of the circle -- 25 percent of the circle, .25 x 360 = 90 degrees. They use a protractor to mark the degrees and color in the sector the correct color. They continue in the same fashion until the spinner is complete.
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References
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images
