Greed!

Adapted from: Lovitt, C., Greedy Pig,The Task Centre Collective, Curriculum Corporation, Melbourne.
The Task Centre Collective has computer simulation software for the Mac to support this activity.

Objective: The students will gain a sense of the meaning of expected value, learn to find the median and the construction of a back-to-back stemplot. In addition they will generate some data for later use.
Materials: One die. The activity is most effective if it is a very large foam die so every student can see the outcome, but any die will do.

One worksheet per student.

Time: 1 period
Instructions: Step 1: All students stand, and the die is rolled twice. Each student gets the total of the two numbers.

Step 2: From now on, before each toss, a student has two choices.

A. They can sit down, and record their total score on their sheet.

B. They can choose to stand. For those students still standing, the die is tossed. If the number is a five, all students still standing lose all of their points. They sit and record a score of 0. If the number is not a five, the number is added to their total score.

Repeat step 2 until all students are seated. This completes a round.

The students play five rounds. At the end of the fifth round each student adds the score for the five rounds

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