Monte Carlo methods are used to simulate activities in baseball such as a team's "hot streak" and a hitter's "batting slump." Student participation in such simulations is viewed as a useful method of giving pupils a better understanding of the probability concepts involved. (MP)

A model for comparing risks to resources with exposures to hazards is described and then applied to the physical educator. (JMF)

Describes several activities of the Data and Chance program involving third and fourth graders. Students use real-life situations to investigate probability. (MKR)

Presents an activity in which the subject is the identity of the team in the greatest jeopardy of becoming the big loser in a basketball tournament. Explores several facts about the big loser, offering them in a hierarchy appropriate for creating various short- and long-term projects for a high school mathematics class. (ASK)

With the Seeing and Thinking Mathematically materials, students learn mathematics by doing mathematics, by using and connecting mathematical ideas, and by actively constructing their own understandings. In this unit students learn to see probability through a mathematical lens by exploring and creating games and simulations and by applying the…

Suggests ways for using data from championship tennis as a means for exploring probabilistic models, especially binomial probability. Examples include the probability of winning a service point and the probability of winning a service game using data from tables and graphs. (AIM)

Presents an activity that utilizes the mathematical models of forest fires and oil spills that were generated (in the first part of this activity, published in the November 1998 issue) by students using probability and cellular automata. (ASK)

Provides mathematical activities in reproducible formats appropriate for students in grades 7-12. The objective is to practice using area models in analyzing compound situations and calculating the expected value or long-term average. (PK)

The activity uses an area model to analyze probabilities associated with games of chance. Three activity sheets are included, with teaching suggestions. (MNS)

Discusses ways to simulate a probability problem of interest to middle school students in which students calculate the average number of packets of trading cards purchased to obtain a complete set of cards. Simulations utilize a spinner, a table of random numbers, and a computer. Includes the BASIC program utilized in the simulation. (MDH)

The problems involved in making reservations for airline flights is discussed in creating a mathematical model designed to maximize an airline's income. One issue not considered in the model is any public relations problem the airline may have. The model does take into account the issue of denied boarding compensation. (MP)

Explains a proposed block of instruction that would give students in industrial engineering, operations research, systems engineering, and applied mathematics the basic understanding required to begin more advanced courses in simulation theory or applications. (DDR)

Describes a problem formulated by fourth-grade students about having more pizza for lunch, and the clarifying, predicting, modeling, simulating, comparing, and extending activities that occurred in addressing the problem from a probabilistic perspective. (MKR)

Some activities designed around the Monte Carlo method of solving probability problems are described. The instructional applications of this method involve physical models or simple BASIC computer programs. (MP)

The Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP) is a four-year program emphasizing mathematical modeling, featuring full use of graphing calculators, building on the theme of mathematics as sense-making, and involving investigations of real-life contexts that lead to reinventing important mathematics. (MKR)