Constructivist Lesson Plan

Constructivist Lesson Plan Michael Royal CED 505 Carnival Math Content Area: Mathematics Grade Levels: 6-7 Timeframe: 2 weeks Learning Objectives: Students will determine the probability of winning various carnival games Students will use metric measurements to draw scale models of carnival games Students will calculate the cost of constructing their carnival games

I. Engagement: Start by having the students play one of the following games of chance/skill that you might find at a carnival. You can also pick a different game for them to play. · Shell game (hide a ball under a shell, mix them up and try to pick the correct shell) · Ring toss (toss a ring on a collection of soda bottles and try to get it to go around the top of a bottle) · Bean bag toss (try to throw a bean bag through a hole) · Knock over the bottles (throw a ball at three bottles arranged in a pyramid) After playing the game, have a class discussion about whether or not students think this would be a good game to play at a carnival if their goal was to get as many prizes as possible. Ask students what carnival games they’ve played before and if there were any that were a lot easier or harder than most to win.

II. Exploration: Students will work in groups of 2-3 and select a particular carnival game to closely examine. Once they’ve selected a game, they will build it and run the game at a school-wide carnival. They will also need to select prizes to purchase for winners of the game. During the carnival, they will collect data on how many students won the game out of the total number that played. At the end of the carnival, surveys will be distributed to all of the participants to determine their perspectives on which games were their favorites and which offered the best value. Here are some web resources students could use while selecting a game to design, build and study: http://www.schoolcarnivals.com/Games/alphabetical.htm http://www.carnivalgames.net/index.html http://www.carnivaldepot.com/index.html http://www.orientaltrading.com/party-themes-and-events/carnival-a1-388762+1252-1-1.fltr Prizes can be selected from the following websites: http://www.carnivalsavers.com/consolationprizes.html http://www.funcarnival.com/store/1233.html http://www.orientaltrading.com/party-themes-and-events/carnival-a1-388560+1252-1-1.fltr

III. Explanation: Following the carnival, students will analyze the results from their games. They will do statistical analysis including calculating the probability of winning, percent of people who played the game who won, cost/profit analysis, and examination of the survey results. Each group will create a multimedia presentation that will summarize their findings. Each presentation will include the group’s statistical analysis along with graphs of their results. Also, each group will report how profitable (or unprofitable) their game was, and what they would change if they were to do this activity again.

IV. Extension: Students will examine the calculations and results of other groups to ensure that they agree with the analysis from their presentations. Any errors found will be discussed by the class to determine whose analysis was correct. Also, students will be challenged to determine how this activity could be applied to a real-life fundraising opportunity for their school.

V. Evaluation: Throughout the activity, students will be informally assessed by their teacher as they select and create their carnival games. Those more advanced students will be pushed to select games that require more complex data collection and analysis. Students will be formally evaluated based on the accuracy of their calculations, cost analysis, and quality of their presentations. The teacher will produce and use a rubric for this scoring process in order to ensure the learning objectives are assessed consistently between groups.