standard_description: Use permutations and combinations to compute probabilities of compound events and solve problems.
problem_activity: Warm-up
The mathematical purpose of this lesson is for students to motivate a conceptual understanding of the
addition rule
. Monitor for students discussing counting people twice.
Launch
Arrange students in groups of 2. Give students quiet work time and then time to share their work with a partner.
Student Facing
The table displays information about people at a neighborhood park.
|                   | wearing sneakers | not wearing sneakers | total |
|-------------------|------------------|----------------------|-------|
|   wearing a hat   |                  |                      |       |
| not wearing a hat |                  |                      |       |
|       total       |                  |                      |       |
Andre says the number of people wearing sneakers or wearing a hat is 21, because there are a total of 10 people wearing a hat and a total of 11 people wearing sneakers. Is Andre correct? Explain your reasoning.
What is the probability that a person selected at random from those in the park is wearing sneakers or wearing a hat?
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
The goal of this discussion is to use the context as a model to introduce a conceptual understanding of the addition rule. Ask previously identified students to explain why Andre counted some people twice when he stated that the number of people wearing sneakers or wearing a hat is 21.
Here are some questions for discussion.
“Why did Andre need to subtract 8 from 21 to get the correct answer?” (It needs to be subtracted because the 8 people that were wearing sneakers and wearing a hat were counted twice. We counted them twice when adding the column total for wearing sneakers and the row total for wearing a hat.)
“How could the number of people wearing sneakers or wearing a hat be represented using a Venn diagram?” (A Venn diagram could be made using two overlapping circles, one for wearing sneakers and one for wearing a hat. There would be 8 people in the middle where the two circles overlap. There would be an additional 3 people in the wearing sneakers circle representing those wearing sneakers but not a hat. There would also be an additional 2 people in the circle representing those wearing a hat but not sneakers.)
“What is the probability that a person selected at random is not wearing sneakers and not wearing a hat?” (
\(\frac{12}{25}\)
)


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