Comments on: What Can You Do With This: 2008 World Series Of Poker

By: A dice game, and introducing probability with experiments | unpuzzle

A dice game, and introducing probability with experiments | unpuzzle — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:43:14 +0000

[…] just estimating probabilities, and then testing them through experiment. We used Dan Meyers great poker example as an intro for the students to guess the chances of the players winning. We then simulated each […]

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:49:39 +0000

Show and tell usually consists of a video clip halfway through our two-hour period. There’s also a photo set I show right after the opener. It isn’t because I have any experience with video or photo that these work for my students. They work because I find them really, really interesting. And it doesn’t take much to sell “interesting” to my students.

The only way I can see these bombing disastrously in a classroom is if the teacher didn’t find them interesting and was kind of faking it because other teachers were doing it. Or if they were being promoted as a break from all the lame, boring math work. Like, okay, if you guys get through two pages of fraction charts, I’ll show you something you already saw on YouTube last week. I can see kids tiring of that also.

By: Michele Armstrong

Michele Armstrong — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:40:34 +0000

Dan
How do you incorporate your show and tell into the classroom? Do they work for you because you are passionate about photography?

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Notes From Foo

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Notes From Foo — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:18:06 +0000

[…] WCYDWT: 2008 World Series of Poker […]

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:03:00 +0000

I downloaded it from Mininova with the Azureus Bittorrent client and converted that file using a utility called ffmpeg to something Final Cut Pro could edit. Inside Final Cut Pro, I cropped the clip and added two rectangles above the percentages. I exported it under the h264 codec and used the free JW player for the little Flash player you see on the site.

Lemme know if I can fill in any gaps there.

By: David Cox

David Cox — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:59:25 +0000

How are you creating these clips?

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:47:50 +0000

@Jeff, I was originally censoring player names, announcer voices, and all kinds of miscellaneous detail. It made the problem sufficiently harder but it ruined the simplicity of the exercise, also, so I stopped. I'd eat my right hand for a video track sans commentary, though. @Jackie, in looking for a visceral question which the video could factcheck, I decided to black out the computerized percentage calculations and have students make their own calculations. The fun part is that there are now three different calculations of increasing difficulty: pre-flop, flop, and turn, with the turn (one card remaining, 46 possibilities, all known) being easiest.

By: Jackie Ballarini

Jackie Ballarini — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:08:51 +0000

I didn't even notice the blacked out part.

By: jeff

jeff — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:40:57 +0000

while you’re blacking things out, dan, why not take out the cards completely and just show their faces.

probably not worth the extra time. but then at least you might be able to make it fit into psychology. cut the tape off before you see everyone cheering for eastgate, ask the students who won.

(this also would probably not work for many people who have students that have watched this already. my students, yeah they haven’t seen it.)

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:42:11 +0000

Dunno if you guys noticed the part of the screen I blacked out.