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Normal Curve Practice: Matching

Someone bequeathed unto me this activity years ago - I hate that I cannot remember who, but let's be honest - I'm lucky I remembered my pants this morning 😀.  

 Because this activity was shared with me so long ago, I had to convert it to a Google Doc and the formatting may be slightly off.  Feel free to make a copy here and edit it yourself to make it perfect for you!

 Here's the gist: students are given a pack of cards.  There are Normal distribution situations on one side and answers on the other.  Begin by mixing the cards (in case the previous class left them in order 😨) and placing them all answer-side up.  Students will turn over one card, complete the task, find the answer on another card, turn over that card, and repeat.  Clearly, if done correctly, students will end on the first card they chose. This is great in that students will immediately know if they are right or wrong - without me giving them feedback.  They work in pairs to solve these questions and talk through any issues.  Of course, I circulate for the duration and make sure all students are good to go!

 The drawback? you may ask... This activity is strictly procedural.  It is not what I would expect on my assessments, nor what the AP Exam will accept ("bald" or "naked" answers).  But you may notice, the students were drawing their Normal curves and shading the appropriate area (a requirement from me).  What was missing is the context in the responses - but if the answers had context this would not be a very challenging activity!  However, this activity truly helps the students recognize when to use the normal CDF vs. the inverse normal distribution.

 Good luck and thanks to that wonderful educator who shared this with me!

~SSB


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