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Spark & Whetstonethe grown-up commons

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A Number's True Size

Four ways numbers in the news get bigger or smaller than they are: per cent against percentage points, relative against absolute risk, big totals per person, and a test result counted out in beans.

For grown-ups, from what ChanceForge teaches children at Spark & Anvil.

  1. Lesson 1Per cent and percentage points
  2. Lesson 2Relative and absolute risk
  3. Lesson 3Big numbers per person
  4. Lesson 4A test in beans
At the table · 2 to 6, a teenager welcome

A thousand beans

You'll need: a bag of dried beans (or rice), a few coloured ones or a marker, two bowls.

  1. Count out 100 beans as a town of 100 (or weigh out a thousand if you are patient). Mark the few who "have it".
  2. Pick a headline from today's news with a percentage in it and act it out in beans.
  3. Each person says the headline back as a count: "this many out of this many". Vote on which way of saying it is fairest.

Print the guidebook (all lessons + the table activity) →