Connect students directly to the concept in a personal way. Capture students' attention by initiating a group problem-solving activity before delivery of instruction. Begin with a situation that is familiar to students and builds on what they already know. Construct a learning experience that allows diverse and personal student responses. Facilitate the work of cooperative teams of students.
Draft Lottery.
Objective: To create student curiosity about the process of random matching function in a way that directly affects students' lives.
Activity: Draft Lottery: Have two bowls in the room, one bowl with numbers 1 to 365, another with dates January 1 to December 31. Have ten students pick a date from the first bowl and then pick a number from the second. Then in the interest of time, have the students whose birthdates have not been picked, call out their birthdates, and have a student pick from the number bowl (1 to 365) until all students' birthdates have been matched with a number from 1 to 365. (Teacher must write down birthdates of each students as s/he will need them later in the unit.) Briefly discuss how the students feel about a random lottery deciding whether or not they are drafted for military service. What is the purpose of a draft lottery? Why do you need to draw birthdates as well as lottery numbers? What do students know about the draft lottery? In what sense is this kind of lottery fair/unfair?
