The lesson that was presented today in my 7th grade observation classroom was a lab activity reinforcing the prior lesson on genetic probability. The first thing the teacher did, was hand out the lab worksheet and carefully go over the instructions. The students were to work in their lab groups and flip a coin 6 times for each set of 15 possibilities. If the coins landed on heads, it was a girl, if the coin landed on tails, it was a boy. This was a bit confusing for the students, so the teacher drew a diagram on the board.
Ex: Set 1) Boys: lll, Girls: lll Set 2) Boys: ll, Girls: llll, etc.
So, 6 coin flips per set, for 15 sets, using tally mark to record the results. Every lab group understood the instructions completely, after the diagram was drawn. The teacher then reviewed the concept of the 50:50 probability of having a boy or a girl and asked each student how many siblings they had and how many boys versus girls. She threw in a trick question every now and then, such as; "Johnny has 4 brothers and no sisters, what is the probability that his parents next child will be a boy?" These students couldn't be fooled, they all answered "50:50!" Once the review was finished, the students started on the lab.
The desks in the classroom are already arranged into groups of 5, so they did not have to move to get into lab groups. I walked around and watched as they flipped coins and asked a few questions to see if they understood what they were finding in their results of the coin flips. I asked them if any of them were part of a family with six or more children or if any of them knew a family with six or more children. None of them were part of a family with six or more children and in response to them knowing families of six or more, they answered "The Kardashians" and "19 Kids and Counting." Only reality show TV families...wow!
It was interesting to see the diversity of behavior from group to group. Some groups were very serious and moving along quickly with the activity, other groups found the coin flipping quite fun & fooled around a bit, flipping the coin onto the floor or rolling it across the room. The teacher did other work at her desk while the students completed the activity and stopped to walk around and check their progress only once, without saying much.
When the students finished recording the coin flips, there was a series of questions they had to answer to show what they had learned from the activity. Ex: "Why can you use coin flips to represent sex combinations that may occur in families?" All of the groups responded that the probability of male to female was the same 50:50 probability of heads to tails. This was a fun activity that seemed to reinforce the lesson very well. I very much enjoyed being part of it!
Ex: Set 1) Boys: lll, Girls: lll Set 2) Boys: ll, Girls: llll, etc.
So, 6 coin flips per set, for 15 sets, using tally mark to record the results. Every lab group understood the instructions completely, after the diagram was drawn. The teacher then reviewed the concept of the 50:50 probability of having a boy or a girl and asked each student how many siblings they had and how many boys versus girls. She threw in a trick question every now and then, such as; "Johnny has 4 brothers and no sisters, what is the probability that his parents next child will be a boy?" These students couldn't be fooled, they all answered "50:50!" Once the review was finished, the students started on the lab.
The desks in the classroom are already arranged into groups of 5, so they did not have to move to get into lab groups. I walked around and watched as they flipped coins and asked a few questions to see if they understood what they were finding in their results of the coin flips. I asked them if any of them were part of a family with six or more children or if any of them knew a family with six or more children. None of them were part of a family with six or more children and in response to them knowing families of six or more, they answered "The Kardashians" and "19 Kids and Counting." Only reality show TV families...wow!
It was interesting to see the diversity of behavior from group to group. Some groups were very serious and moving along quickly with the activity, other groups found the coin flipping quite fun & fooled around a bit, flipping the coin onto the floor or rolling it across the room. The teacher did other work at her desk while the students completed the activity and stopped to walk around and check their progress only once, without saying much.
When the students finished recording the coin flips, there was a series of questions they had to answer to show what they had learned from the activity. Ex: "Why can you use coin flips to represent sex combinations that may occur in families?" All of the groups responded that the probability of male to female was the same 50:50 probability of heads to tails. This was a fun activity that seemed to reinforce the lesson very well. I very much enjoyed being part of it!