In today’s video, Head Teacher Mathematics at Orara High School, Holly Wedd, is back to share 2 activities she uses in her classes to engage her students when learning about probability.
The 2 activities are Wall of Odds and Quest for Complements. Holly explains in the video that Wall of Odds involves students working in groups of 3 to solve a problem, and is an activity adapted from Peter Liljedahl’s book Building Thinking Classrooms.
‘Open/middle style problems seem to work the best here to give the kids the chance to have multiple different ways to get to their answer, but still end up with the same answer in the end,’ she says. ‘During this working time I’ll be moving around the room, gauging understanding, answering questions and boxing work that I want them to keep.’
When it comes to running this activity in your own classroom, Holly also shares some tips that she’s learned along the way. For instance, how she ensures the work is equally shared among each student in the group.
The second activity, Quest for Complements, is an activity Holly likes to use as a 10-15-minute closer activity at the end of a lesson on the topic of complementary events. It involves students being given cards and being directed to find their card’s complement card by moving around the room.
‘It is testing their knowledge of complementary events adding to one, as well as their knowledge from previous topics of adding fractions, decimals, and percentages,’ she shares.
To access the Quest for Complements activity, click the link below, and if you have any topics you’d like Holly to cover in future videos, leave your request in the comment section at the bottom of this page.
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