Tootsie Pop Pull - Probability

This lesson introduces probability and sampling without replacement.

Preparation

In a large grocery bag, I put enough Tootsie Pops for everyone in the class, making sure there was a mixture of flavors. I gave each child a sheet to record the number of Tootsie Pops of each flavor in the bag and had them circle their favorite flavor.

Tootsie Pop Pull

We went around the room. As each child pulled from the bag, they had to do three things:

1. Tell me their favorite flavor.
2. Tell me the probability of getting their favorite flavor.
3. Keep a tally of the flavors drawn from the bag at the bottom of their sheet.

Discussion

We had an excellent discussion about whether something was a good chance. Many students learned that it didn't matter about being last because the theoretical probability was very different from our experimental probability. Great fun!