Using games from the television game show "Minute to Win It" to increase students interests, engagement and knowledge in probability and statistics

Abstract

Student interest and engagement is an important piece to increase learning. Motivating students is one of the biggest struggles for educators, and taking a motivational experience and linking it to meaningful learning is even more difficult for educators. In this study, I link a high interest, motivational activity to different concepts of probability and statistics in my eighth grade general education classes. I developed a probability and statistics unit based on games from the popular television game show "Minute To Win It". In each game students collected data, and the data was used to enforce each learning target (or math standard). The goal of this unit was to increase student engagement in class with activities, discussions and work completion; as well as increase overall knowledge in the standards in relating to probability and statistics. I found, through the use of student surveys, the activities were motivating to the majority of students, and students' showed an increase of knowledge through a pre- and post-test.