Probability of Game Shows

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I took a probability class in college and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was such a fascinating and fun area of math and I couldn't wait to teach it. A few years ago, I was teaching and I explained to my students that our next math unit would be on probability. Immediately, the class erupted into groans. I asked why and they told me that probability was boring. I was so surprised because I thought they would be excited. My students were all highly capable and most of them loved math so I figured they would like probability. I then began thinking about how I could make probability more fun for them. Then it came to me...game shows. Many game shows involve probability. I thought it would be fun to look at how likely you are to win different game shows. I created and found many different activities and have now taught them for a couple of years in a row. They are always a huge hit! Below I will share some of my favorites:

The Price is Right:
This was one of my favorite game shows as a kid. I always watched it when I was home sick or during the summer. I find that most of my students have never watched it but they really enjoy it. The great thing about it is it is packed with tons of mini-games that all involve simple probability. I find videos of the games on YouTube. I have them watch the first part of the video to learn about the game, then I pause it so they can calculate the probability, and then we watch the rest to see if the person won. For instance, in the game One Away it gives you all the numbers in the price of a car but they are all one off from the real price. That means if it lists the first number in the price as 2 then it is actually 1 or 3. Therefore, you have a 1/2 chance of getting each one right. Since there are usually 5 numbers in the price of the car, the probability of getting them all right on the first guess is 1/2 to the fifth power which is 1/32 or 3.125%. I also love to do Plinko. You can make a pretty complicated tree diagram to figure out the probability of that game.

Deal or No Deal: 
Students love to figure out the probability they will win a million dollars. The probability of this game is pretty simple but you can also talk about expected value. You can discuss what the banker is offering you and your chances of getting more than that. To get students excited about answering questions about it, I allow them to play an online version of the game first. They love that they get to play a game in class!

Wheel of Fortune: 
I found an activity based on the Wheel of  Fortune on Mathalicious. Mathalicious is a fantastic site because they have real-world, fun math problems. You can even search for problems by the standard you are teaching, which is how I found this activity. The only problem I have with Mathalicious is it is expensive to have a membership. In this activity, students investigate whether Wheel of Fortune is rigged.  First, they calculate the theoretical probability of spinning different values of money. Then, they watch clips from an episode to find the experimental probability of spinning the different values of money. Then, they compare them. They look to see whether lower values of money are spun more often than they theoretically should. You can find the activity here.

There are so many other fantastic game shows that I would love to create activities about. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

Comments

  1. Danielle PetitmermetAugust 12, 2019 at 9:42 PM

    I love this! I don't teach probability since I have fifth graders, but in my Geometry and Probabilty for Teachers and in my Middle Level Mathematics courses in college we went over teaching it quite extensively. One that we discussed that has always blown my mind is the Monty Hall Problem. Here is a link if you aren't familiar: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/precalculus/x9e81a4f98389efdf:prob-comb/x9e81a4f98389efdf:dependent-events-precalc/v/monty-hall-problem

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jake DaltonAugust 15, 2019 at 11:17 AM

    I took a statistics and probability course around the time that deal or no deal first went on the air. Our professor created assignments that had us watch the show to answer questions and it was a lot of fun. It would also be fun to test out the price is right activities because that show was the best as a kid. I could see it being a great classroom activity. In our class our professor incorporated a lot of casino games like roulette in assignments, but that is probably more appropriate for college level students!

    ReplyDelete
  3. DiannaAugust 16, 2019 at 2:45 PM

    It has been years since those shows started! It seems like a lot of people enjoyed it since individuals still talk about it. Which game do you think that the students prefer?

    ReplyDelete

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