Abstract #301071

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JSM 2002 Abstract #301071
Activity Number: 360
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education*
Abstract - #301071
Title: Using Marbles to Teach Introductory Probability Courses
Author(s): Miguel Caceres*+
Affiliation(s): Sam Houston State University
Address: 23 Teak Mill Place, The Woodlands, Texas, 77382, USA
Keywords: Probability Distributions
Abstract:

The problem of drawing marbles in succession from an urn that contains marbles of different colors is widely used in teaching introductory probability courses. Conditional probability, independence, and the multiplication rule are the most common topics in which examples using marbles is used.

In this paper, the author illustrates how the problem of drawing marbles from an urn can also be used to explain other topics, such as mutually exclusive events and the law of total probability. Furthermore, the author shows how the problem with marbles can be used to derive and relate some of the discrete probability distributions studied in an introductory probability course.

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Revised March 2002