March 27, 1999

The explorers begin with a review session. They begin to learn about how to correctly record observation and to not jump to conclusions. Dr. Robert Panoff, Bob1, shows the explorers a bottle of Healthy Choice® Traditional Pasta Sauce. He reads seal of the bottle that states "Seal pops up when open, do not buy if seal is up." Bob1 asks the explorers if the button was down and the explorers unanimously agree that the button was down. Bob1 then shows the explorers the content of the bottle, which was just water. "Now do you think that this bottle was opened," asked Bob1. How many times would you have to throw a dice to determine if the dice is fair. "Six times," Cam an explorer says. They each roll their dice six time and discover that it would take a significantly larger amount to get and accurate depiction. The explorers next go to the computer room to see if the computer is fair using a die spreadsheet program. Th explorers then review the procedures to make a formula. After their informative review the explorers make a random function to model. The explorers them become inquisitive to how may die the computer will calculate. So, they duplicate their original die formula and tell the computer to roll two die. Then the explorers add up the two results of the rolls and they sort them in ascending order. Concluding a short break the explorers do an activity on probability. The explorers compose a model of the flu in a controlled environment. The place one sick person marked with an "F" for flu. They then are given a die and told that if the die lands on a certain number then that person gets the flu, a "F". The explorers are given different ratios that their die may land on numbers that contain the flu. One group is given a 1:3 change, another is given a 1:2, and the final group is given a 5:6 chance that they will land on a number that contains the flu. The explorers enjoyed performing this activity, but they loved the next activity even more. They return to the computer lab and used a forest modeling program found part of our Interactivate site. Concluding this the explorers composed their reports and give themeselves a pat-on-the-back for a job well done.