Observation

Hey guys, I got the opportunity to observe Alexander's 5-6pm lesson with his Year 12 Maths Standard Student Malik. With his student, Alexander focused on the topic of probability, specifically determining probabilities related to using a deck of cards, rolling a dice, flipping a coin, and selecting marbles from a bag.

At the beginning of the lesson, Alexander introduced the fundamental principles of probability, exploring the relationship between favourable outcomes and total number of outcomes. He did this to ensure that his student was able to understand the difference between frequency and relative frequency (probability). From this he branched off into probability questions using a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Alexander began by separating the frequency of the required event i.e. picture cards, colours, and suits, to the total number of outcomes in the scenario. He compared the differences of selecting specific cards out of the total number of cards (P(A)), to selecting specific cards in a given scenario (P(A) / P(B)). He used tree diagrams to explore this behaviour in cases where specific cards where chosen i.e. odd cards, then from those cards, what the probability was to select a card whose value was prime. Alexander used these applications to show how they work when dealing with rolling a dice, flipping a coin, and picking marbles of varying colours from a bag. In exploring selecting different coloured marbles, he went into depth of how probabilities change when dealing with "with replacement" and "without replacement". With the "without replacement" examples he had his student Malik to complete, he ensured that Malik was always reducing the total marbles left over.

Overall, it was an amazing lesson to observe. Alexander provided useful insights into how to break down the wordy probability questions into digestible key points. Great job Alexander!