Understanding chance and probability using Microsoft® Office Excel®
Snapshot
Students will engage with Microsoft Office Excel to develop and consolidate understandings of chance
and probability.
Explanation
Chance is about the concept of uncertainty, and the vocabulary of chance is used in everyday life.
This unit provides students with opportunities to develop and clarify this language. Through a range
of activities students will collect, organise, summarise, display and interpret data, and measure and
describe uncertainty and make predictions. They will be given opportunities to design and trial a variety
of data collection methods to order the likelihood of occurrence of identified outcomes. Students will
play a number of games and participate in simple maths investigations with the aim of developing
and consolidating concepts of probability. Students will engage with spreadsheet software to record,
manipulate and present data.
Orientation
• Identify and play existing games of chance. Discuss characteristics of games of chance.
What defines a fair game?
• Identify, discuss and define the meaning of words, common vocabulary and colloquialisms
associated with chance. Use the Internet to locate definitions of terms and Australian vernacular –
e.g. pigs might fly, you’ve got Buckley’s, once in a blue moon, fat chance.
•C
lassify events and scenarios according to their likelihood of occurrence – e.g. certainty, possible,
most likely, least likely.
• Revise the use of tally marks.
Enhancing
• E xplicitly teach students to create tables within a spreadsheet, insert/delete new columns and rows,
format cells, insert data within a table.
•P
lay the game ‘Heads and Tails’ and discuss possible outcomes and the likelihood of those outcomes
occurring. Use tally marks and record outcomes in a table format. Create the table in Microsoft®
Office Word or Office Excel to record results using tally marks.
• S tudents participate in a range of activities to consolidate understanding of probability. For example:
use available learning objects; use a deck of cards to predict and investigate the likelihood of drawing
a particular suit, colour, number; rolling two dice to find most probable combinations; drawing
coloured blocks/ marbles from a bag; using spinners to predict outcomes.
• Investigate the following: What colour Smartie is most likely to be found in a box of Smarties? What
are the chances of a head and tail turning up when two coins are tossed? What are the chances of
receiving a red card from a pack of cards?
•U
se other random devices to continue investigations and record results in tables created within
a spreadsheet – e.g. spinners, coloured marbles in a bag, playing cards.
•A
sk students to think about how we can test and record the results. How many times would
we need to perform the test? Would each test have the same results? Why? Why not?
•C
reate a class bar graph to record results. Use spreadsheet software to present the information
as a digital graph. Discuss the graphing options available – e.g. bar graph, pie graph, line graph.
Synthesising
• S tudents collaboratively design and conduct simple investigations to prove or disprove hypotheses.
(Conduct surveys and experiments, record and collate data, interpret results and present conclusions.)
Transfer data from spreadsheet to publishing/presentation software – e.g. Microsoft® Office
PowerPoint®, Microsoft® Publisher.
• Students work collaboratively to design and create a game of chance that is fair.
• Students critically evaluate existing games (including online games, handheld
console games) – e.g. evaluate layout, purpose, rules, attractiveness, user
friendliness, fairness of possible outcomes, instructions.
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Bringing a 1-to-1 Program to life – primary
Understanding chance and probability using Microsoft® Office Excel® (Continued)
Teaching tips
• Whole-class lesson to introduce Microsoft Office Excel – or use the Office Excel content in your
Microsoft IT Academy as a homework task.
• Students work collaboratively in groups to conduct simple investigations.
• Students work independently on personal computers to create tables, generate graphs, record data
and create presentations to communicate findings.
Classroom
management
strategies
• Use peer tutoring to assist learners with diverse needs.
• Establish group members’ roles and responsibilities, and articulate clearly the expected purpose
of each investigation.
• Nominate team leaders, recorders and resource gatherers.
Supporting software
www.microsoft.com.au/partnersinlearning
www.microsoft.com/education/msitacademy/default.mspx/
http://www.microsoft.com/Australia/education/
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint®, Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word
Additional ideas
Explicit teaching
• Understand and make links to the language of chance. For example: Is this likely/certain/impossible?
Is this fair?
• Develop understanding that the probability of an event occurring can be recorded as a fraction
using words and symbols.
• Develop and consolidate understanding that equivalent fractions represent the same number
of quantity – e.g. 4 out of 10 is equivalent to 2 out of 5.
• The chance process – that is, the likelihood of events occurring.
• Use spreadsheet software to create simple tables, record data and create simple graphs.
Suggested
development level/s
Years 4 and 5 (Ages 9–10)
Assessment ideas
Students independently design and conduct simple investigations to prove or disprove hypotheses.
Conduct surveys and experiments, record and collate data, interpret results and present conclusions.
Possible investigations:
• Monopoly is more popular than Scrabble.
• Most students travel to school by car.
• Soccer is more popular than cricket.
All data is to be recorded using spreadsheet software and
results presented using digital graphs.
Bringing a 1-to-1 Program to life – primary
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