Education Technology

Personal License Plates

Subject Area
Math: Statistics: Probability and Random Variables
Level
6-8
Activity Time
60 Minutes
TI Calculator
TI-30X IIS
Other Materials
    This is Activity 10 from the EXPLORATIONS Book:
    Math Investigations with the TI-30X IIS and TI-34 II: Activities for the Middle Grades

    You will need the following materials for this activity:
  • Straight edge
  • Colored pencils, markers or crayons
  • Construction paper
Resource Types
Lessons

Personal License Plates

Activity Overview

Students explore concepts related to the counting principle and exponential notation. They write rules for calculations involving the counting principle and find the total number of possibilities from a set of rules.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print pages 98 - 101 from the attached PDF file for your class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the pages to the class.

    Follow the activity procedures:

  • Formulate a set of rules for designing a personal license plate
  • Work out the number of possible ways for a character to be placed in each position
  • Use permutations and combinations to determine the total number of possible combinations
  • Generate a sample license plate for the developed set of rules
  • After the Activity

    Students complete the Student Activity pages and answer questions.

  • Review student results
  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary
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    Subject Area
    Math: Statistics: Probability and Random Variables
    Level
    6-8
    Activity Time
    60 Minutes
    TI Calculator
    TI-30X IIS
    Other Materials
      This is Activity 10 from the EXPLORATIONS Book:
      Math Investigations with the TI-30X IIS and TI-34 II: Activities for the Middle Grades

      You will need the following materials for this activity:
    • Straight edge
    • Colored pencils, markers or crayons
    • Construction paper
    Resource Types
    Lessons
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