Friday Math! Baseball Card Game Probability

How do baseball video game developers design their video games so that Major League players perform with relative accuracy according to their real-life strengths and weaknesses?  They begin with statistics and probability!  In this series of activities, students will apply probability (expressed as fractions and dice rolls) in order to design a baseball card which will be used in a baseball game they can play.

Activity One:  Exploring the Probability of a Two-Dice Roll
In the first activity, students will complete the "Dice Roll Probability" activity to determine the probability of rolling each number combination on a pair of dice. Then students will determine the probability of rolling a number with two dice—expressed as a fraction—by dividing the number of combinations which make up any given result by the total number of combinations that can be rolled with two dice.

Activity Two:  Creating a Baseball Card-Layout
We now start to bring in graphic design, research, summary writing, applied math and geometry, and metaphorical thinking to create a baseball card.

Activity Three:  Creating a Baseball Card - Biographical Summary
Students start by using internet skills to locate a biography of someone they admire.  Then  students need to transform the biography into a very short summary of three to five sentences.  

Activity Four:  Creating a Baseball Card - Team Name Metaphor
Next, students use an area of the notecard to insert a team name which appropriately represents the person in the biography they’ve summarized in activity three.  Students will have to use critical thinking skills to come up with a name.

Activity Five:  Creating a Baseball Card - Baseball Probability
With our summary and graphic design elements complete, we’re ready to apply probability of dice rolls to create a fairly accurate baseball card which we’ll use to play a game.  Baseball is flooded with statistics and probability like no other sport, and we can use these statistics to re-create realistic possibilities in a dice game.  Students will check each other's possible solutions and combinations of dice rolls and we will come together as a class to determine all the possible solutions.

Activity Six:  Inserting the Probability onto the Baseball Card
We will need to insert the dice rolls related to probabilities we’ve identified in the probability charts onto the baseball card.  This will be a challenging activity in using logic, and checking and re-checking fractions and their equivalents.  

Final Activity:  Play Ball!
Students use their baseball cards and an online pair of dice to play a baseball game.