This week was the start to my seventh graders' probability unit. When I was searching for activities, I knew I needed something EXTRA fun and engaging. Not only is it almost the end of the year, but their poor brains have been tested like crazy lately and they needed a pick-me-up. This horse racing activity was the perfect thing-- especially with the Kentucky Derby so near!
On the first day, we spent the entire class playing the game, making predictions, and collecting our data. Students had to roll a dice twice and find the sum of the numbers. This sum was the winning horse and that horse got to move up a spot. The first horse to reach the finish line was deemed the overall winner of the horse race. Once the students got to that point, they recorded the winner on our class chart. They continued playing until the end of class to get the most data as possible. Students loved playing the game & had fun trying to figure out strategies and I was already hearing which horse they thought was most likely to win.
On the second day, I wanted to bridge the game and make connections to probability. We started the class by analyzing our class data. I allowed students to tell me what they noticed, wondered, etc. about the graphs. We talked about why #7 happened the most, why #1 wasn't possible, etc. Then, we found the total outcomes and found the probability of each of the 12 horses winning the game.
Overall, this activity was loads of fun & had so many math connections we were able to make. This is one of those activities I will star and make sure I implement next year somehow!
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