Year 7 maths

The Year 7 Enhancement students devised probability games and tested them on fellow maths students. 

Learning is always fun! The game player experience.

On Friday 25 October, 7B waited excitedly in J5 wondering when 7E were going to arrive. As a 7E student, we knew from the start of the week that we were going to try some of their fun games. But what games? What were they about? Well Mrs Witt kindly explained, before we walked in, that we were going to be playing and reviewing 7B’s games involving ‘chance’. She reminded us a little about probability or chance, and asked us questions like “What is the probability of a head landing if you toss a coin?” and “What is the probability of rolling a five on a six-sided die?” She then briefly explained the difference between ‘theoretical probability’ and ‘experimental probability’. 

7E separated into nine groups and made their way to J5. 7B were eagerly awaiting us and were ready for the games to begin. The games were very engaging and they all had exciting themes. There was everything from pirates and princesses to Stranger Things. We could clearly see that 7B had put in a lot of effort into planning and creating their games. They had even made playing pieces using the 3D printer. We got to spend approximately 3-5 minutes on each game table. It was obvious that one or two of the games were biased (in fact, they actually all were!) but we didn’t 100% know that when playing them!  We had fun even if we weren’t able to win as many as the game-makers did!

 All good things must come to an end. Before the session ended, we reflected on and shared our experiences with our peers. Then Ms Dickson, 7B’s Maths teacher, asked 7B to explain what their task when creating the games was. That’s when we found out that we were supposed to lose!! It was a big shock because 7B hid that fact very well from the players. It was great that we could discuss and explore probability through these games, and it was a great opportunity for the two classes to come together! 

 7E would like to say WELL DONE 7B; your games were wonderful and we were most impressed! You should be very proud.

 Claire Amato (7E)

The game creator experience

Recently in 7A and 7B maths, we have been working on probability games. However, we have been instructed by Ms Dickson, to make these games biased and unfair, with them being in favour of us. In groups of 2 or 3, we constructed probability games with a wide variety of different themes and the ways in which they were unfair.  

Some games where impossible for others to win, and some games had a nearly equal chance on both sides.

We played against 7E. They were a huge success, with all the groups winning the majority of the games played, and with some teams even winning ALL of them. We all learnt a lot by putting our game into action, and seeing what would actually happen. This was a great, fun CAT to finish off the year.

Bella D’Adamo and Wendy Wang (7B)