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Habits of Mind Activities

Resources:

3 cups and 1 paperclip per group



The Monty Hall dilemma

The Monty Hall dilemma is a probability puzzle loosely based on the American television
game show Let's Make a Deal. The name comes from the show's original host, Monty Hall.

Habits: Gathering data with all the senses
Thinking about thinking
Thinking flexibly

1. Say to the students:

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the
choice of three doors. Behind one door is a car, behind the
others, goats. You pick a door, say number 1, and the host,
who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door,
say number 3, which has a goat. He says to you, "Do you
want to pick door number 2?" Is it to your advantage to
switch your choice of doors?


2. Divide the class into groups of four.


3. Give each group of four a piece of paper, a pencil, three styrofoam cups and a
marble. The marble represents the desired prize, the car, and the empty cups
represent the goats.


4. Ask each group to work out an answer to the question and to write their answer,
together with their justification on their piece of paper.


5. Get each group to present their answer and justification to the class.


6. Tell the students the correct answer and explain.












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