Mathematics and the Game of Pig, Essay Example

Description

Probability being part of calculation in elementary classrooms has not received much popularity among the students (Ferguson, 2007). One of the reasons for this phobia is the lack of realization by the students that some everyday life events actually involve probability. We will start with some of the undertakings that will trigger the learners in to thinking about the problems of probability whereas employing rational additions, relating both geometry and multiplication as well as having a familiarity with strategic thoughts. These actions have been borrowed from Marilyn Burns in her publication titled, About Teaching Mathematics (Math Solutions Publications, 1992).

The Game of Pig (Grades 3–8)

Math ideas: This is a game for two or more competitors. It is beneficial in that it helps in exercising the students’ mental additions and tactical thinking.

The purpose: ability to score 100 points or more earlier than the other competitors.

Procedure: Players roll two dice, taking shots after the other has finished while following the rules below:

1. On a shot, a player is required to roll the dice as many times as he or she may wish, psychologically observing a running overall of the sums that arise When tone competitor stops rolling, he or she registers the total and supplements it with the other scores since previous series to achieve an accumulative total.
2. However, if it chances that a 1 show up on one of the dice earlier than the player’s choice of stopping the rolling of the dice, the score for that round is zero (0). The player has no choice but to give way for the next competitor in line to take action.
3. More devastating is if a 1 comes up on the two dice that a player throws in each round. The turn ends as well as the accumulative score, thereby returning to zero.

Probability is a field of math which in most cases does not the attention it deserves in the earlier stages of schooling by children. Below is a list of some of the steps that can be put into use to with the aim of helping the students to think positively on the topic of probability as well as making their minds to exercise with additions, thoughts and not forgetting the association between geometry and multiplication. These steps have been copied from Burks’s About Teaching Mathematics (Math Solutions Publications, 1992)

Two-Dice Sums (Grades 1–8)

Here is the math conception: Age is not the issues in playing this game by the students although the only catch is that the students must be able to make a sum of the numbers that appear on the two dice rolled. Children of tender age have an added advantage of their own since they are used to adding things from now and then. On the other hand the older kids are more rational therefore are able to ponder over the chances of the totalities that can arise as a result of rolling the dice.

Objective: to do away with the counters by utilizing the possible least rolls.

How to go about it: Minimum of two players required. Each player has to have 11 counters, a game strip that registers the numbers starting from 2 to 12 with enough spacing apart so as to make sure that the counters fit on top of each number, and a sheet for entering the records during the session of the game.

References

S. Ferguson, Mathematical Statistics — A Decision-Theoretic Approach, Academic Press, New York (2007)

Filar and K. Vrieze, Competitive Markov Decision Processes, Springer-Verlag, New York (2007)

Shao. Jun, Mathematical statistics, Springer New York (1999).

Wilks, S. S, Mathematical statistics, Wiley New York 1962.