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ERIC Number: EJ758272
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Sep
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8148
EISSN: N/A
The Confidence Game
Braude, Stan; Corey, Leah M.
Science and Children, v44 n1 p40-44 Sep 2006
Students are usually quick to draw conclusions about their surroundings. Their generalizations, however, are often based on a single experience or even a story recounted by a friend. An individual's ability to reason inductively improves as he gains more experience in the world. The ability to draw broad conclusions also improves with an understanding of likelihood and probability, and dice games are a popular way to introduce these concepts to students. In this article, the authors describe one such game that they developed after years of judging and discussing science fair projects with students who had no understanding of why they should have repeated trials or treatments in their experiments. Intended for students in fourth through sixth grade, the game lets students discover why collecting repeated observations leads to greater confidence in a conclusion. Rather than presenting the concepts of replication and certainty as facts, playing a game provides an engaging environment in which students discover these principles themselves. (Contains 2 figures and lists 2 resources.)
National Science Teachers Association. 1840 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-3000. Tel: 800-722-6782; Fax: 703-243-3924; e-mail: membership@nsta.org; Web site: http://www.nsta.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A