Engaging Learners with Probability
Posted by: Elizabeth Redmond in Education, Educational Technology, Middle School Math, Online Math Activities
So, I bet you were wondering what happened with the 8th grade students from Mr. K’s class?
Well, plans changed. As they do so often in our daily lesson plans!
I ended up spending Friday afternoon with Mr. K and two of his 7th grade classes.
The focus of the week’s lessons was on probability, and Mr. K was still determined to use Adaptive Curriculum as part of his instructional delivery with the SmartBoard.
Adaptive Curriculum has a few Activity Objects for probability:
After briefly previewing these Activity Objects with Mr. K during his morning prep period, he decided to use “Find the Given Probability.”
Mr. K had success in both his classes in using this Activity Object. One of my favorite moments was when we first started the Activity Object and all the students were dead silent and watching the SmartBoard as the introduction was given. After some time went by and students were being given a chance to come up to the SmartBoard, I heard comments of “Oh, you got it!” and “That’s awesome!” It got even better when students were working together with each other to solve the problems and could barely stay in their seats for want of getting to the SmartBoard and solve the problem!
At the end of the lesson, Mr. K asked the students to reflect on their learning. Here’s what a few students had to say:
“I learned an easier way to do probability. The good thing about the activity is that you’re basically making your own problems. It was really fun. I loved the project.” W. B
“I learned to use probability in a better way. It gives a good challenge. I really liked it.” P. G.
“I learned that you have to multiply the smaller probabilities to get a final one. I liked the animations and interactive learning. I would recommend this program to any math teacher.” J. G.
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