{"id":415,"date":"2020-09-10T19:44:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T07:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/?p=415"},"modified":"2020-09-10T19:44:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T07:44:01","slug":"an-argument-for-using-chocolate-in-lectures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/an-argument-for-using-chocolate-in-lectures\/","title":{"rendered":"An argument for using chocolate in lectures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In spite of what the title of this post might suggest, I actually am not a huge fan of using chocolate or food in general in lectures. So this activity is one of the only times where chocolate makes an appearance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The activity starts by asking everyone to stand up. I show the spinner on the projector in the lecture theatre and ask students to pick a colour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/spinner.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-418\" width=\"366\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/spinner.png 670w, https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/spinner-300x245.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The colours &#8211; blue and silver &#8211; are based on the two colours of the chocolates that I bring to the lecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.candywarehouse.com\/item-images\/125185-01_hersheys-kisses-blue-and-silver-milk-chocolate-candy-200-piece-bag.jpg?resizeid=104&amp;resizeh=1000&amp;resizew=1000\" alt=\"\" width=\"328\" height=\"328\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The game then plays out as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Pick a colour (blue or silver)<\/li><li>If the spinner lands on this colour, stay standing, otherwise sit down<\/li><li>Repeat!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I keep going until the number of students still standing is no more than how many chocolates I brought to the lecture AND I\u2019ve done at least eight spins. The students still standing at the end win the chocolate that matches the colour they\u2019ve chosen on that last spin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve seen this game used at teacher professional development sessions many times, usually with a coin rather than a spinner. My \u201cspin\u201d is to add chocolate that matches the two colours of the spinner and also to use this special spinner!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/annafergusson.online\/spinner\/\" frameborder=0 width=\"500\" height = \"500\">Spinner goes here!<\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Give it a spin a few times, what do you notice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve found that students start to get skeptical about the spinner after about four or five spins, but the random angle\/position of the spinner after each spin helps keep the \u201ctrick\u201d going for longer than when I\u2019ve used something more static (for example, a pack of cards where all the cards are red).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time we\u2019ve got down to the \u201clucky\u201d few who do end up with chocolate, the students sitting down are justifiably upset about the game and their lack of chocolate. So, I ask them to write me an argument convincing me why they deserve the chocolate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of the fun with rejecting their arguments is reminding them that I never stated at any point that the spinner was fair i.e. the probability of a blue spin being 50% was something they assumed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, the probability of getting 7 or more blue spins out of 8 is pretty low <strong>if<\/strong> the probability of a blue spin is 50%, but it\u2019s pretty high<strong> if<\/strong> the probability of a blue spin is 85%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to give this activity a go? You can <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/annafergusson.online\/spinner\/\" target=\"_blank\">access the dodgy spinner here<\/a> or improve the janky <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/annafergusson\/8f74c25e73268cc3b15e774bd67ebd1e\" target=\"_blank\">JavaScript code here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I haven\u2019t tried this activity online so I\u2019d be interested to know whether it\u2019s as effective in this context, particularly without the lure of chocolate and the atmosphere that builds in a room each time the spinner comes up blue! Used within a large lecture environment, it\u2019s fun way to challenge (and teach) about assumptions, which is pretty important for hypothesis testing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A short whole class activity that uses the lure of chocolate to introduce hypothesis testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teaching.statistics-is-awesome.org\/go-big-or-go-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}