Search results

Listed under:  Mathematics  >  Statistics and probability  >  Probability
Online

Possible outcomes: Year 6 – planning tool

This planning resource for Year 6 is for the topic of Possible outcomes. Students represent the probability of an event occurring on a scale of zero to one as decimals, fractions or percentages.

Downloadable

Poker machines (simulation)

This lesson explores how poker machines work and what is meant by the term Return to Player (RTP) percentage. Students run simulations to determine how small betting amounts can lead to a large cumulative loss over time and examine how reinvesting profits or wins from playing the poker machine back into the machine has ...

Text

Micro:bit missions: Take a chance on me (Integrating Mathematics): years 6-8

This resource comprises two activities that allow students to explore the concept of chance in Mathematics. Students use computational thinking while using a micro:bit as a digital system to generate and collect data. Students implement programs involving branching and iteration in visual and general-purpose programming languages.

Downloadable

Lucky lottery

In this lesson, students play a simple lottery game, analyse their odds of winning and how this influences the decisions they made. Students determine the differences between experimental and mathematical probability, conduct a simulation modelling an event and critically evaluate the odds of winning the lottery. The lesson ...

Downloadable

Back to the books

In this lesson, students will explore how bookmakers set odds, and how these odds are carefully determined in order to guarantee the bookmaker the best chance of making a profit. Students learn how to convert between odds and probabilities and calculate the expected profit or loss based on odds. The lesson is outlined in ...

Downloadable

Chances are!

Students calculate the sum of probabilities for a chance experiment and compare frequency predictions with actual data.

Video

Catalyst: Probability and the birthday paradox

Even when a maths problem seems simple – for example, the chance of two people sharing a birthday – the maths can run counter to our human intuition. Mathematician Lily Serna poses a maths problem to the Clovelly Bowling Club: how many people do you need to gather to get a 50 per cent chance of any two people in that group ...

Video

Can We Help Same birthday whats the chance video

Mathematician Adam Spencer answers a question about something called the 'birthday paradox'. Find out what this has to do with birthdays and the number of people in a room.

Interactive

Experimental probability

This is an interactive resource that enables students to conduct virtual probability experiments using a spinner or a pair of dice. The student can manipulate the relative sizes of the different coloured segments of the spinner or the numbers on the faces of the dice to investigate the effect of these changes on probability. ...

Online

reSolve: Scrabble Stats

This sequence of lessons invites students to collect data about letter frequency in a variety of text sources. They use their findings to critically evaluate letter point values in Scrabble, compare them to historical values, create their own themed Scrabble point values and to decipher an encoded excerpt of text. Each ...

Video

Catalyst: Probability and the gambler's fallacy

Mathematician Lily Serna visits Luna Park to explain a great probability pitfall. She shares a century-old tale from Monte Carlo casino, and then she puts its lesson to the test. If you flip a coin and it lands on heads three times in a row, what result would you predict for the next flip? Find out why intuition might land ...

Video

What Are the Chances?

Do you know what chance is? It's the probability or the likelihood of something happening. Watch this video as Grace explains the probability of picking a red marble out of a bowl. What's the probability of picking a green marble?

Video

Big data, better hospitals

Overcrowding in hospitals is one of the biggest challenges facing our healthcare system . In order to reduce hospital waiting times, the Patient Admission Prediction Tool (PAPT) uses historical data to predict how many patients, and with what kinds of injuries, are expected to arrive at the emergency department each day ...

Video

Catalyst: Magical maths

At first glance, maths and magic might not appear to have much in common, but did you know that you can use maths and logic to come up with solutions to problems that can seem magical? Learn one such maths trick in this video from ABC Catalyst. What is the probability of the letter not being 'e'?

Video

Comparing chance

A simple interactive simulation in which students compare probabilities.

Text

Thumb wrestling tournament

In this introductory activity students use a simple thumb-wrestling tournament to analyse a series of matches in which there can only be one victor. Students work in small groups to explore different ways of mapping out the events of a tournament, introducing the concept of constructing sample spaces and tree diagrams as ...

Online

TIMES Module 14: Statistics and Probability: chance, year 9 - teacher guide

This is a 19-page guide for teachers. This module continues the development of probability. A careful consideration of outcomes and equally likely outcomes is undertaken. In year 9, students consider situations involving two stages or two variables, including the special case of what are sometimes called two-step chance ...

Online

TIMES Module 11: Statistics and Probability: chance, year 6 - teacher guide

This is a 17-page guide for teachers. It continues the development of probability. A careful consideration of outcomes and equally likely outcomes is undertaken. Experiments involving known probabilities are considered and what is observed is compared with what is expected. This is carried out with both small and large ...

Online

reSolve: Probability - Rock Paper Scissors

In this sequence of two lessons, students determine their chances of winning the game 'rock paper scissors', then test their chances by playing against another player and in a simulated game. Students look at the psychological aspect of the game and recognise that there is a strategy to increase your chance of winning. ...

Text

Statistics games

This resource is a web page containing three dice games to explore chance. Each dice game has simple instructions to play the interactive strategy game. The games provide a useful way to investigate the chance of rolling a particular number after successive trials. This resource is one activity from the NRICH collection.