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Graphical Design
of this site done by Wayne
D. Fields |
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Brief
Tour
The following screenshots from Probability Explorer give
you a GLIMPSE at some of the software capabilities and features.
Please download the demo version to
try the software for yourself!
| When the microworld opens up, the user
can choose an experiment with Coins, 6-sided Dice, and
Marbles in a Bag, or the option to design your own experiment. |
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| With the option to "Design your own experiment",
the user is brought to this screen. There are many playful
and real world icons from which to choose in order to
design a unique experiment. Children can playfully contrive
their experiments, or use the icons to model real world
phenomenon like the weather. |
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With all experiments, except the Marble
Bag, users can use the Weight Tool to change
the likelihood of an outcome and toggle the Weight Tool
into three different views. This is a purposeful design
to connect the learning of probability with rational
numbers and proportional reasoning.
1) Weight: a part-part relationship
(3:1:2) as in the odds
2) Weight/(Total Weight): a part-whole
relationship (3/6, 1/6, and 2/6) as in the probability
3) Percent: shows a percent of the
whole and that total probability must be 100%
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| In a bag of Marbles experiment, a user
can place any combination of 6 different colors in the
bag for a with replacement experiment. |
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| For students who need help connecting the
part/whole relationship in probability, the Weight Tool
can be displayed along with the Marble Bag and will update
dynamically as students place marbles in the bag. |
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| With bag of marbles designed above, a with
replacement simulation of 100 trials yeilded the results
on the right. The results are LINED UP in the order they
occured and the Pie and Bar Graphs are visible. In addition,
the images of the graphs have been COPIED and SAVED as
a picture in the Notebook for students to refer back to
in their analysis. This type of saving ability encourages
reflection on data and the ability to look for trends
across data sets. |
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| If a user designs an experiment and wants
to simulate two events at a time, the software environment
can be used to explore the beginning notions of combinations
and permutations. The data are simulated in pairs and
can be stacked either ORDERED or NOT ORDERED so students
can analyze the data in two different formats. Many students
initially analyze experiments (e.g., a rock paper, scissors
game) considering only 6 possible outcomes because they
do not consider the ORDER (player A and player B). These
two different views can help students understand the importance
of order. |
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Probability Explorer (c) Hollylynne Stohl Lee, 1999-2005
Development partially funded by
Center for Technology and Teacher Education, University of
Virginia
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