Playing cards

Hello everybody!

Probability is a numerical description of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. And this is another topic related to measurement that you will have to work with students from the last two years of RPimary Education. 

As with statistics, I believe probability is an easy content to bring to a reality that promotes interest among the students, and today I am going to show you an example. 

As probability is really present when playing cards, in this case, I suggest you use the famous Spanish deck. 

A Spanish deck is formed by 40 cards (some with 48), and it has four suits: coins, cups, swords and batons. Furthermore, there are ten different kind of cards on each suit: ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, jack, horse and king. Here I sahre with you a picture that will help you clarify this idea. 

Now, the existing games to play with these cards are boundless, but there is something in common among all of them: the probability plays a really important role.

I am sure your students will know different games with this deck. You can use any of them to make them solve some mathematical problems on probability (at the same time they are playing), such as: What is the probability to take a gold card if you are playing with other three people? And to take a jack? And to take a card with more that three  swords?

As I always say, please share pictures with the blog if you use this idea with your class, or leave any doubt, idea or whatever you need on the comments!

Thanks for reading!