Adela Gingrich

Statistics students assemble a deck of cards to prepare for their card game project. Aside from tracking data and patterns, students enjoy getting to engage in entertaining activities. “I’ve learned how to play slapjack [since] I didn’t know how to play before,” Nylah Saffold (12) said.

Students in Laura Kaufman’s statistics classes began an interactive group project March 3, applying what they’ve learned in class to card games. Groups have the freedom of choosing whatever game they want to play and take notes on their results.

“My group has chosen slapjack,” Nylah Saffold (12) said. “We play it for two class periods and keep track of our data, seeing how many times someone wins, and then we present [our data] to the class.”

Each group tries to pick a unique game, differentiating the kind of data they have to report from the rest of their peers.

“[My group] is playing poker and figuring out how many three-of-a-kinds we can get in a game,” Henry Olschansky (12) said.

As expected, the project proves to be a trickier task to students, as they consider all the directions they can take with their project.

“The biggest confusion is trying to figure out what your group’s game is going to be, but once you figure it out the rest is straightforward,” Olschansky said.

As students gather data over time, they claim to gain a greater understanding of the content they’ve learned.

“I learned how to work well with people in the class, people that I haven’t worked with before,” Saffold said. “But I’ve also learned how to keep track of data, find patterns and see how it connects.”