tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1091979517567705761.post7801376005523114613..comments2023-10-03T04:20:03.184-06:00Comments on Math = Love: Black Box ActivitySarah Carter (@mathequalslove)http://www.blogger.com/profile/11839095945000612533noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1091979517567705761.post-18645653949221598582018-01-11T14:09:59.128-06:002018-01-11T14:09:59.128-06:00I've done activities like this with probabilit...I've done activities like this with probability where students draw marbles out of a bag one at a time (replacing them each time) and record the results after 10, 25, and 50 pulls. They then make a prediction about the contents of the bag - how many of each colored marble are in the bag? The twist at the end is that I don't reveal the total contents of the bags at the end! Why not? Well, as I tell the students, they were determining the contents based on a sample. <br />Scientists have to do that every day! They take blood samples and use that one sample to determine what types of medicine to prescribe or what conditions their patients may or may not have. They don't have the luxury of analyzing every drop of a patient's blood. Plus, at the "end" no one is there to tell them, "Yes, that's exactly what was in there!" It's a rough analogy, but really drives home the concept. Another example is cooking - chefs can sample a spoonful of soup to see if it needs more seasoning, but eating the entire pot would not really make sense! :)JDielshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05896933323847765615noreply@blogger.com