Bottle Flipping & Probability

Like most students, my 7th graders are obsessed with bottle-flipping.  So I thought for a long time on how to use this to my advantage with the 7th grade standards.  I came up with a probability lesson.  The lesson combines experimental probability, writing odds from probabilities, and making predictions from probability.

Lesson Plan
1. I lectured about how to turn odds to probability and back again.  (5 min)
     I used examples from sports odds and various other examples.

2. The class discussed bottle flipping.
      We started by discussing bottle flipping, and followed it up with a discussion of how full the bottle should be for optimal flipping.  I handed a water bottle to each student.  While we downloaded the PDF and discussed the instructions students drank some water to get their optimal level.

3. The students flipped and flipped.
     I allowed 5-7 minutes for students to flip bottles and collect data.

4. Students wrote probabilities and odds from the data.
      Students used their own data, and their groups total data (3-4 students) to write probabilities and odds.

5. Students predicted how many successes from their next 10 flips, then tested their prediction.

Overall a quick, hectic, and very loud day.  However a great success for engagement.  Now tomorrow, we will see if any students remember how to write odds and probability.

The handout can be viewed here.