Shake, Rattle, and Roll - A Bean Game

Suggested Grades

4-7

Objective

Students (organized in partners) will analyse a game through probability to decide whether it is a fair game or not.

Materials

• clean empty juice boxes
• scissors
• 12 dried beans per student pair
• marker

Method

• 

  Use the marker to label the beans to match this picture. Click to view, press the 'back' button on your browser to return to this page.

• Cut a hole in the top of the juice box small enough so that only one bean can go through it at a time.
• bean graph Click for a printable bean graph, press 'back' in your browser to return to this page. Or, ask each student pair to draw a bean graph like the example provided.
• Put 12 beans in the box. Shake the box until two beans come out. Add the numbers oon the beans together. Mark an X on the graph above the total of the two beans
• Put the two beans back in the box. Shake two more out, and mark their total on the graph. Repeat this until you have 10 X's on the graph. Take a look at the graph. Is there a pattern in the numbers? Do any of them appear more than once?
• Now shake out and total beans until you have 20 X's on the graph. What does the graph look like now?
• Shake and total beans until you have 30 X's on the graph. Then compare the graph with others' in the class.
• Ask students to respond to these questions:
  • Do the graphs look alike or different?
  • Which numbers seem to appear most often?
  • Which numbers seem to appear least often?
  • Why might this be so?
  • What might the graphs look like with 50 X's? Try it.
  • Do you think the bean game is fair or unfair? Why do you think so?