Example Post

The Carnival Game PBL project that I designed for my 7th grade Math classroom is designed to be a project happening towards the end of the year.  We finish the school year learning about probability so this will be the project that ends that unit.  I anticipate this being a 2 week project in our curriculum.

Intro of Project:

Project will be introduced by showing the video Caine’s Arcade which is a true story of a little boy who builds an arcade completely out of cardboard (If you have never seen the video you need to watch it now.  It is an amazing and heartwarming story! 🙂 )

The following question will be posed to the students:

• How can you design a carnival game to where not everyone will win the game, but it will still be a game that people will want to play (meaning that there is a chance to win)?

STEP 1:  BRAINSTORMING

***THIS MUST BE SIGNED OFF BY ME BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN CONSTRUCTING ANYTHING.

• Draw a Rough Sketch of your Game (everyone must have this drawn in your group)

• List out Materials needed:

• List out the Rules:

• How do people win your game?

STEP 2:  BUILD YOUR GAME

Here are some of the games I anticipate students making:

STEP 3:  MAKE YOUR GAME READY FOR THE CARNIVAL

1.  You need to have simple rules posted so that anyone can walk up to your game, read the rules, and learn to play quickly and easily.
2.  You must post how much “money” it is to play.
3.  You must post how to win.
4.   You must have posted how much “money” you would win.

STEP 4:  THEORETICAL PROBABILITY

Find the Theoretical probability of winning your game.  Remember, this is the chances of winning your game in a “perfect” situation.  Work will need to be shown.

STEP 5:  EXPERIMENTAL PROBABILITY

Each person needs to play the game 50 times and record how many times you win.

STEP 6:  CREATE YOUR PRESENTATION—Individualized Presentations, not 1 per group

Google Presentation must include: Name of Game, Rules to your game, How do you win, How much to play, How much you will win, Theoretical Probability with brief explanation of how it was calculated and Experimental Probability

STEP 7:  WRITE YOUR REFLECTION

Students will be required to submit either electronically or written by a hand a reflection of their game.  Included in the reflection must be the answers to following questions.

• What role did you play within your group?
• Why should your game be a part of a carnival?
• What were some of the difficulties/challenges in designing a game that people could win but not be super easy to win every time?
• What was the data you collected the day of the carnival and what surprised you from the data?

CARNIVAL DAY!!

• Students will go down to set up their carnival in our school’s common area.  They will need to come up with a system to track how many people play and how many people win their game.
• They will take turns playing their classmates games and will vote at the end for the one that they enjoyed the most
• Parents and other school officials are invited to come and participate as well.  They will also be included in voting for the favorite game.

GRADING RUBRIC:  Here is a link to the grading rubric I plan to use.