Cereal Box Home Page

Fun with Probability!

The Probable Pen in the Cereal Box

Student Worksheet Name __________________

 
  1. Predict the number of pens you will get for each color, and the total number of pens.
  2. Using each side of a die to represent one colored pen, tabulate the number of rolls it takes until you have at least one of each color.
  3. Count the total for each color and record the total number of pens you got.
  4. Predict the total number of each color for your whole class, and the total number of pens for your whole class.
 
 
Blue
 
Green
 
Yellow
 
Orange
 
Red
 
Purple
 
Total
1. Prediction
2. Tally
3. Actual Totals
4. Prediction of 
Class Totals
5. Actual 
Class Totals

Questions

  1. How many boxes of cereal did you have to purchase to get one pen of each color? ______ (Remember, you had to buy one box of cereal to get each pen).
  2. How many boxes did you predict? ______ Was it more or less? ________
  3. Why do you think your prediction is different from the actual? _________________

  4. ___________________________________________________________
  5. Why do you think this is the case? ____________
Copyright (c) University of Illinois, 1996