Probability and Games

Designed for precollege teachers by a collaborative of teachers, educators, and mathematicians, Probability and Games is based on a course offered in the Summer School Teacher Program at the Park City Mathematics Institute.

This course leads participants through an introduction to probability and statistics, with particular focus on conditional probability, hypothesis testing, and the mathematics of election analysis. These ideas are tied together through low-threshold entry points including work with real and fake coin-flipping data, short games that lead to key concepts, and inroads to connecting the topics to number theory and algebra.

But this book isn't a "course" in the traditional sense. It consists of a carefully sequenced collection of problem sets designed to develop several interconnected mathematical themes. These materials provide participants with the opportunity for authentic mathematical discovery-participants build mathematical structures by investigating patterns, use reasoning to test and formalize their ideas, offer and negotiate mathematical definitions, and apply their theories and mathematical machinery to solve problems.

Probability and Games is a volume of the book series IAS/PCMI-The Teacher Program Series' published by the American Mathematical Society. Each volume in this series covers the content of one Summer School Teacher Program year and is independent of the rest.