C

Series
Student

Chance and
Data
My name
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 Series C – Chance and Data
Contents
Topic 1 – Chance (pp. 1–8) Date completed

l language of chance_________________________ / /

l likelihood_________________________________ / /

l possible outcomes__________________________ / /

l chance experiments_________________________ / /

Topic 2 – Data (pp. 9–23)

l collecting and representing data_______________ / /

l analysing data_____________________________ / /

Series Author:

Rachel Flenley

Copyright ©
Chance – language of chance

If something will definitely happen, we say it is certain.

If something might happen, we say it is uncertain.
If something definitely can’t happen, we say it is impossible.
Certain and impossible are the opposites of each other.
There are lots of possibilities in between.
impossible certain

1 At school today, what is something you …

are certain will are uncertain will think is impossible
happen? happen? to happen?

2 Look at the jars below and answer the questions.

Is it possible to pull out a white counter? ____________

Is it possible to pull out a black counter? ____________

Is it possible to pull out a frog? ____________


Zoe says it is impossible to pull out
a black heart. Is she right? ____________
Otis says it is impossible to pull out
a red heart. Is he right? ____________
Daz says it is certain he will pull out
a white heart. Is he right? ____________
Chance and Data C 1 1
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Chance – language of chance

We use lots of different words to describe the possibilities between

impossible and certain.

1 You ask your mum or dad if you can sleep over at your friend’s
place tonight.
a What are some possible answers they might give you?

b Which is the most likely answer?

c Which is the most unlikely answer?

2 Draw arrows to show where

impossible
you think each of the terms
below should fit on the never
chance line.
probably
improbably
likely
Maybe, maybe, unlikely
maybe.
Why can’t they
just say yes!
even
definitely
certain

2 C 1 Chance and Data

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Chance – likelihood
1 Look at the bag.
a Colour 6 counters red, 1 counter green,
and 3 counters orange.
b What colour counter are you most
likely to pull out? Why?

What colour counter are you least likely to pull out? Why?

How would you describe the chance of pulling out an orange

counter?

2 You will need blue, yellow and pink pencils. Colour the counters so:
a You are most likely to pull out a blue one.
b You are least likely to pull out a pink one.
c You could pull out a yellow one.
d Compare your bag with a friend’s bag.
Have they coloured the counters the
same way as you? If they are different,
can you both be right?

Chance and Data C 1 3

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Chance – possible outcomes
1 What could happen
next? Draw or write
some more possible
outcomes.

2 Draw or write an event that could have some different outcomes.

Ask 2 friends to record a different possible outcome for the event.

My event Friend 1 outcome Friend 2 outcome

4 C 1 Chance and Data

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Chance – possible outcomes

You will need: coloured pencils

What to do:
A family has 4 kids. One possibility
is that there are 2 girls and 2 boys.

What are the other possibilities?

Draw or write them.

What to do next:
How many possibilities did you find? Share your work with a friend.
Did they find the same possibilities?

Chance and Data C 1 5

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Chance – chance experiments

You will need: a partner a coin

What to do:
What are the possible outcomes of tossing a coin? or
Is one outcome more likely than the other?

What to do next:
Toss a coin 20 times and record the results using tally marks ( ) in
the Game 1 section.
Heads Tails Are the results what you
thought they might be?

Game 1

Total Total
Toss the coin 20 times for
Game 2. Are your results
the same as before?
If your results changed,
Game 2
why do you think this is?

Total Total

6 C 1 Chance and Data

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Chance – chance experiments

You will need: a partner a die

What to do:
We often roll a 6 to start a game.
Do you think it is harder to roll a 6
than the other numbers? Explain.

Let’s find out. Roll a die 20 times, recording the results in the table
above using tally marks. Was 6 the hardest to roll?

What to do next:
Roll the die again another 20 times and record the results in the
table below.
Was 6 the hardest to roll this time?

Compare your results with 2 other

pairs. What did they find?

What would you now say about how hard it is to roll 6?

Chance and Data C 1 7

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Chance – chance experiments

You will need: a partner 2 dice

What to do:
When you roll 2 dice, what are the different outcomes
you could get when you add the 2 numbers? Work with
your dice and a partner to find out and add them to the table.

We can roll …
2 3 4 12

What to do next:
Roll the dice at least 20 times and record a tally mark for each outcome.
Which outcomes do you find are more likely?

Which outcomes do you find are less likely?

8 C 1 Chance and Data

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Data – collecting and representing data

Data is information. We collect data to help us find out about the

world. We organise and display the data so that we can look at it
easily and learn more.

1 
Look at this group of people.

a What data can we collect about this group of people from

the picture?
• there are 4 males and 6 females

b What data could we find out about these people if we ask

them questions?
• who likes to eat chocolate
• what languages they speak at home

Chance and Data C 2 9

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Data – collecting and representing data

We can sort data in different ways. How we sort it depends

on what information we are looking for. copy
1 Cut out the animals below. Sort them into 2 different groups or
categories. Record your group headings here.

2 Now sort them into 3 different groups or categories. Record your

headings here.

3 By sorting the data differently, did you find out different information?

10 C 2 Chance and Data

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Data – collecting and representing data

We often find out data by asking questions. We call this conducting

a survey. We have to design the questions carefully to get the
information we need.

1 Wally’s coach has said the team can go either to the

beach, to the movies or bowling for their end of season
party. It is Wally’s job to find out which is the most
popular choice.
a Wally has thought of 2 possible questions. Are they
the right questions to ask? Give him some feedback.

Question 1
‘Would you prefer to go to the movies or go bowling for our party?’

Question 2
‘What would like to do for our end of season party?’

b Design a question that will give Wally the data he needs.

Chance and Data C 2 11

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Data – collecting and representing data

One way to collect data is to use beads, blocks or counters to record

the answers people give us.

You will need: your classmates beads and two strings OR blocks

What we want to find out:

Let’s imagine we want to find out who has brothers and who hasn’t.
What question would we ask? Write it here.

What to do:
Collect the answers. Hold a string in each hand and decide which side
will be Brothers and which will be No Brothers. Give a bead to each
person and ask them the question. Ask them to put a bead on the
right string.

What to do next:
Count the beads on each string and record
the results below.
Now we know that:

people have brothers

people do not have brothers

12 C 2 Chance and Data

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Data – collecting and representing data

We can use tally marks to record data as we collect it. We make a

mark like this as we count or receive answers.
We show 5 like this .This makes it faster to count because we
can count in 5s.
How many marks are here? 12
5, 10, 11, 12

1 How many cats are here? Each time you count a cat, make a tally mark.

2 How many dogs are here? Each time you count a dog, make a tally mark.

3 The tally marks show

how many fish are in
the pond. Draw the
fish to match.

Chance and Data C 2 13

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Data – collecting and representing data

You will need: a partner 10 people to ask

What to do:
Work with your partner to design a question to ask
people about what they prefer to eat, do or play.
Give people 3 choices.
Plan your question here.

Write each choice at the top of a column.

Ask 10 people your question and record each answer with a tally mark
in the correct column.

What to do next:
Write 2 pieces of information you learned from this survey.

14 C 2 Chance and Data

SERIES TOPIC Copyright © 3P Learning
Data – collecting and representing data

We can represent data in many different ways. We often use graphs

as they make it easy to see and understand information. One kind
of graph is a column graph.

1 Students in 2G conducted
a class survey to find out
what class pet they
should get.
They decided to show this information on a column graph and
present the graph to their class teacher.
a What should the title of the graph be? Write it in the box at the
top of the graph.
b Colour a square to match
each vote. The fish votes have
been done for you.

7 c Which is the most popular

choice?
6

5 d Which is the least popular

choice?
4

3 e Does the graph make it easy

to find out this information?
2
Why or why not?
1

Type of pets

Chance and Data C 2 15

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Data – collecting and representing data

Column graphs can be vertical or horizontal.

1 2F conducted this survey Yes No Maybe

to find out how many
parents could come on
their class camp.
a Colour the squares to represent this information on the horizontal
column graph.

Parents who can help on our camp

Parents who

maybe
can come

no
yes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
b Write 3 things this graph tells you.

c If all the maybes turn into yeses, how many parents will come
along? Show how you know.

Continued on page 17.

16 C 2 Chance and Data

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Data – collecting and representing data
Continued from page 16.

2 a Use the same information on page 16 and represent it on this

vertical column graph.
b Compare the 2 graphs.
Do they represent the
same data? 12
11
10
9
c This graph is missing its 8
title. Add it to the graph. 7
6
d Why do graphs need titles? 5
4
3
2
1
yes no maybe
Parents who can come

3 Find a third way to represent this information. Perhaps you could use
blocks or counters and sticky notes for the labels.

Chance and Data C 2 17

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Data – collecting and representing data

Pictographs are another type of graph. Pictures are used to represent

the data.

You will need: a partner pencils 10 people to ask

What to do:
Survey 10 people and find out how many children are in their family.
Draw a  in the correct column to represent each person you ask.

Children in family

1
1 2 3 4 5+
Number of children in family

Continued on page 19.

18 C 2 Chance and Data

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Data – collecting and representing data
Continued from page 18.

What to do next:
Use your graph to answer the following questions:
a How many people have only 1 child in their family?

b How many people have more than 4 children in their family?

c What is the most common number of children in the families in

your survey?

d Sometimes we get data that we might not have planned for. For
example, did any children have older step brothers and sisters who
don’t live with them? Did you decide to include or not to include them?

e What are 2 other pieces of information your graph tells you?

Chance and Data C 2 19

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Data – analysing data

Once we have collected and represented our data, we can look at it

more closely and learn from it.

Tubs of ice cream

1 Imagine you have been asked by the
sold in 1 week
owner of the local ice cream shop to
study this data for them. Use the graph 8
to answer their questions.
7
6
Dear _____________________,
5
Which flavour is our best seller?
4
How many tubs of ice cream 3
do we sell each week?
2

How many tubs of ice cream do we 1

sell each week altogether?

Flavours
If we could only sell 3 flavours,
which flavour should we stop
selling? Why?

We need someone to be our new

flavour taster. Would you like the job?

Thanking you,
The Ice Cream family

20 C 2 Chance and Data

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Data – analysing data

When we look at data we have to think carefully about what

information it actually tells us.

1 Look at this graph. Does it tell Favourite subjects in 2Y

us that: 10
a The 2 favourite subjects in 2Y 9
are writing and art? 8
7
6
b The least favourite subject in 5
2Y is spelling?
4
3
2
c That everybody in 2Y loves art? 1
Maths Reading Spelling Writing Art

Favourite subject

2 a 
One student says that this graph shows that 2Y shouldn’t learn
spelling because only 4 students say it is their favourite subject.
What do you think of their argument?

b 
Does this graph mean that no one likes PE or Science? Explain
your thinking.

Chance and Data C 2 21

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Data – analysing data

Sometimes we can play with data to make it say what we want.

1 Clem wants to convince her parents that most children in her class
go to bed after 9 pm. She decides to survey the other students in her
class to find out when they go to bed. When she creates the choices
for kids to select from, she gives them these:

9:00 pm 9:30 pm 10:00 pm 10:30 pm

a Will this survey give a balanced picture of when students in her

class go to bed? Why or why not?

b Explain what you could do to make this survey fairer.

2 Jack is in charge of organising a survey to find out what movie

should be played on the class bus trip. He asks 5 of his friends and
the winning movie is ‘Transformables’.
a Was the survey balanced? Why or why not?

b How could you make the survey fairer and provide more
balanced data?

22 C 2 Chance and Data

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Data – analysing data

You will need: a partner pencils

What to do:
Look at this graph. What
could it be about? Work
with your partner to create 8
a title and labels that could 7
make sense. 6
5
4
3
2
1

What to do next:
Write 3 questions about your graph for another pair to answer. Show
your questions to your teacher then swap pages with another group
and answer each others’ questions.

Chance and Data C 2 23

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