Here are some specific activities, investigations or visual aids we have picked out. Click anywhere in the grey area to access the resource.
Pascal's Triangle Get to know this famous number pattern with some revealing learning activities
Normal Distribution Calculator A customised online calculator for quickly finding areas under the normal distribution curve.
Plinko Probability A simulation of a Quincunx (Galton Board) which can be used to create the bell shaped curve of the normal distribution.
Here are some exam-style questions on this statement:
- "The heights of palm trees along a beach are normally distributed with a mean of 4.55m and a standard deviation of 0.37m." ... more
- "A group of students sat a Biology examination and a Computer Studies examination. The students' marks in the Biology examination are normally distributed with a mean of 70 and a standard deviation of 9." ... more
- "The time in minutes taken to drive through a city at different times of the day can be modelled by a normal distribution with mean of 45 and standard deviation of 12. A commuter will be late for work if it takes more than an hour to drive through the city." ... more
- "The heights, H metres, of flowers called Xylothorn Blooms growing in the dense forests of Verdantem on the luminous planet Aurorion can be modelled by a normal distribution with mean 14.3 metres and standard deviation 3.9 metres." ... more
- "A random variable \(X\) is normally distributed with \(\mu=250\) and \(\sigma=25\)." ... more
- "The weights in grams of 98 mice are shown in the cumulative frequency diagram. The heaviest mouse weighted 160g." ... more
- "Mr Willis goes to school (he's a Maths teacher) five times each week during term time. On any given day, the probability that he goes on an orange bus is \( \frac13 \)." ... more
- "A small digital storage manufacturer makes novelty USB drives which are given away at conferences. The probability that a drive is defective is 0.03. The factory tests a random sample of 200 drives." ... more
- "The probability of winning a gold coin in a game of chance is 0.6. The game is played six times. Find the probability of winning:" ... more
- "Bostock and Chandler play one game of Ultimate Noughts and Crosses online each day they are in quarantine." ... more
- "The weights of players in a sports league are normally distributed with a mean of 75.2 kg, (correct to three significant figures). It is known that 75% of the players have weights between 67 kg and 80 kg. The probability that a player weighs less than 67 kg is 0.05." ... more
- "Eels are elongated fish, ranging in length from 5cm to 4m. In a certain lake the length of the eels are normally distributed with a mean of 84cm and a standard deviation of 18cm. Eels are classified as giant eels if they are more than 120 cm long." ... more
- "The length, \(X\) minutes , of a certain category of online video is normally distributed with a mean of 28." ... more
- "At the south end of Playfair Amusement park are two games of chance, Beat The Goalie and Basketball Bounce." ... more
- "The random variable X follows a normal distribution with mean \(\mu\) and standard deviation \(\sigma\)." ... more
- "The length of Costlow's bâtard bread loaves in centimetres is normally distributed with mean \( \mu \). The following table shows probabilities for values of \(L\)." ... more
Click on a topic below for suggested lesson Starters, resources and activities from Transum.
Furthermore
If you would like to interact with the graph of the normal distribution you will find it waiting for you on the Graph Plotter page (you will need to rescale the axes).
If you use the TI-Nspire calculator you can find instructions for using the Normal CDF function on the GDC Essentials page.
If you use a TI-Nspire GDC there are instructions useful for this topic.
This Binomial Distribution Video is from Revision Village and is aimed at students taking the IB Maths Standard level course.
This Normal Distribution video is from Revision Village.
This Bicen Maths video clip shows everything you need to memorise on this topic for A Level Statistics.
How do you teach this topic? Do you have any tips or suggestions for other teachers? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make these free resources even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world. Click here to enter your comments.
