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How Would You Score It?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Secondary curriculum
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How Would You Score It?
 

A game was played at a fair in which children guessed the weight of Mr Jones, the rugby teacher.

Five children made the following guesses:

1. Between 70 kg and 90 kg
2. Between 75 kg and 100 kg
3. Between 88 kg and 140 kg
4. Between 90 kg and 95 kg
5. 85 kg exactly

It turns out that Mr Jones weighs 88 kg.

Each child argues that they should win the prize.
How might each child argue that their guess was best?

If you had to award the prize, who would you choose to be the winner, and how would you justify your choice?

Devise a scoring system that penalises those whose guess has a very wide range, and rewards guesses where the middle of the range is very close to the actual weight.

Does your scoring system reward the child you thought should be the winner?
 

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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