11-13 yrs old
14-18 yrs old
Math & Economics
Explore the probability of dispensers, sheep breeding and design your own fair experiment to determine the probability of different Minecraft mobs.
October 2, 2018
Full Teacher Lesson Plan
A full outline of the lesson to support you to run this activity.
Student Worksheet
A worksheet to support students in recording information.
World Download
Download of the world file for Minecraft: Education Edition.
Link to Google Sheet
Use this for collaborative collection of in-game data for Activity 1.
Link to Excel Sheet
Use this for data collection for Activity 1 if you don't want to use the Google Sheet.
Are dispensers in Minecraft truly random?
What sheep breeding should take place to determine the colour of the mystery sheep?
How can we design a fair experiment in Minecraft to determine the probabilities of getting different types or colours of Minecraft villagers and animals?
There is a complete lesson plan/outline in the "External References" section but below is the quick version.
Activity 1: Students use a dispenser as a random colour generator, and compare the results to an experiment with a random number generator.
Activity 2: Students have a limited number of experiments to complete, and in that time they must do their best to determine the colour of the mystery sheep.
Activity 3: Students must design, build, and complete a probability experiment in Minecraft to determine the probabilities of getting different villagers or different varieties of horses, llamas, sheep, parrots or sheep.
Students will explore the difference between theoretical and experimental probability.
Students will make predictions based on experimental results.
Students will design a fair probability experiment in Minecraft: Education Edition.