It's one thing to be told the fact, and then check for accuracy, and 
then another to be expected that all kids know this, or be 
able to derive it if they've not been told, which is the expectation
of the Maryland assessment.




Thanks for passing this on, its interesting where they put 
this in textbooks. Of course the student editioin won't tell
kids this right?


'
Date forwarded: 	Tue, 17 Aug 1999 22:15:39 -0400 (EDT)
Send reply to:  	<ahimoe@soltec.net>
From:           	"Albert Himoe" <ahimoe@soltec.net>
To:             	"Arthur Hu" <arthurhu@halcyon.com>
Copies to:      	<upstream-list@cycad.com>
Subject:        	RE: Solution to (8th?) grade Maryland Assessment birthday problem
Date sent:      	Tue, 17 Aug 1999 21:05:52 -0500
Forwarded by:   	upstream-list@cycad.com


> Arthur Hu wrote:
> >
> > Visualization at this level is far from basic 8th grade
> > level math, you generally cannot and should not be teaching
> > this sort of stuff, my solutionwas based on knowing how to compute
> > the exact probability, this is certainly not suitable for a
> > minimal grade promotion standard test
> >
> 
> The following problem appears the Teacher's Edition of "Mathematics in
> Action" (1993) published by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, an 8th grade text.
> 
> LOGICAL REASONING
> 
> How many people would you have to ask for there to be a better than 50%
> probability that two of them will have the same birthday?
> 
> You may be surprised to find out that the answer is just 24 people, even

> though there are 366 possible birthdays. You can test the Birthday
> Paradox in your classroom or by checking birthdays of people at random
> from Who's Who or some other biographical dictionary. Count the number
> of birthdays until you find a duplication. Then compare your results
> with those of the other students.
> <Check students' work.>
> 
> Albert Himoe
> 
> ---
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