Description
I use this activity as an opening activity to dependent probability. I fill bathroom cups with 20-30 M&M's and then let the students work as pairs through the sheet. You could also get the small snack bags of M&M's and just hand those out.
The first section asks for a guess of the probability for each color. The second section analyzes the probability of the candies in the cup (or bag). As students complete their color totals, we record them on the board to compare the diversity.
The back of the worksheet has students remove candies to find new probabilities for different colors and compare those to the original probabilities. The idea is they realize that the probability will usually go up as candies are removed.
There is also a digital version via Google Slides. Each section, including the class data chart, is on a different slide. There are text boxes for students to use as they answer the questions. Directions are located in the notes section of each slide. You can even use this for virtual learning if you can get the candies to your students!
Highlights
Description
I use this activity as an opening activity to dependent probability. I fill bathroom cups with 20-30 M&M's and then let the students work as pairs through the sheet. You could also get the small snack bags of M&M's and just hand those out.
The first section asks for a guess of the probability for each color. The second section analyzes the probability of the candies in the cup (or bag). As students complete their color totals, we record them on the board to compare the diversity.
The back of the worksheet has students remove candies to find new probabilities for different colors and compare those to the original probabilities. The idea is they realize that the probability will usually go up as candies are removed.
There is also a digital version via Google Slides. Each section, including the class data chart, is on a different slide. There are text boxes for students to use as they answer the questions. Directions are located in the notes section of each slide. You can even use this for virtual learning if you can get the candies to your students!



