Judging Randomness
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Description
This model-eliciting activity has students create rules to allow them to judge whether or not the shuffle feature on a particular iPod appears to produce randomly generated playlists. Because people's intuitions about random events and randomly generated data are often incorrect or misleading, this activity initially focuses students' attention on describing characteristics of 25 playlists that were randomly generated. Students then use these characteristics to come up with rules for judging whether a playlist does NOT appear to be randomly generated. Students test and revise their rules (model) using five additional playlsits. Then, they apply their model to three particular playlists that have been submitted to Apple by an unhappy iPod owner who claims the shuffle feature on his iPod is not generating random playlists. In the final part of the activity, students write a letter to the ipod owner, on behalf of Apple, explaining the use of their model and their final conclusion about whether these three suspicious playlists appear to have been randomly generated. This lesson provides an introduction to the fundamental ideas of randomness, random sequences and random samples. Less
Learning Registry Activity
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Topics and Grades
Grade: Undergraduate to Graduate
Topics: Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability, Mathematics, Professional Development, Probability
Resource Pedagogy
Resource Type/Classification:
- Teacher Materials
Tool for: Teachers