In this activity, students will study Galton boards. A Galton board is a vertical or inclined board with a series of staggered pins arranged in a triangle. As balls are dropped from the top of the board, they strike the pins and will fall either to the left or to the right and eventually land in numbered bins at the bottom. Students will use the results to approximate a normal curve, and will also see how adding obstacles to the board affects the probability of a ball landing in a certain bin.

Download the attached PDF and look over the Teacher page.

Discuss the materials from the Student Page with your class.

Encourage students to explore Web sites and questions from the Extensions page.