Resource Portal
Here you can find STEM education resources.
Search and filter below, according to your preferences, to find free activities, videos or webinars to use.
Heads and Tails
Experimental probability... for better samples make them bigger.
(Navigator activity)
Publisher: Texas Instruments UK
Editor: Barrie Galpin
Topic: Mathematics
Tags Binomial Distribution , Probability
This activity, which has been specially written for use with TI-Nspire Navigator, is about experimental probability. Students are able use their TI-Nspire handhelds to record the results when they toss one, two or more coins. Each handheld immediately displays a bar chart of the entered results and these can all be collected by the teacher for display simultaneously on a large screen, allowing individual variations to be discussed. The results from the whole class can then be compiled and displayed on a single bar chart.
The key mathematical point is that with small samples there is a lot of variability around the theoretical probability but, with a large sample, that variability is likely to be much less. The activity may also be used as an introduction to the binomial theorem.
