Gambling Option

Gambling option: At times when the class has been working on a cooperative group activity, or some other easily evaluated activity that lends itself to the awarding of credits in compilation throughout the activity, the gambling option can be used to add motivation, excitement and sometimes angst to the lesson. If the students have been working in cooperative groups to some end, I would normally be circulating, monitoring and providing instruction and feedback. Also, I would be tallying credits to those groups that were working well together, excluding those not participating from any credit gain, and announcing periodically who was receiving credits and who was not. I would also award credits in varying amounts depending on the quality and accuracy of their work to the groups as they reported their responses. At the end of the activity, I would assign a value to the tallies and add them up. Each group would then have the option of gambling with these points. Those opting out simply keep their credits as they are. Gambling works the same way as the investment account (Savings and Investment Account) share price movement. 2 six sided dice are rolled. This time, however if 7 or 11 comes up, the group loses their whole total. Non-double numbers doubles their total once. Double numbers doubles their total twice. Snake eyes and boxcars doubles their totals three times. At first few students will wish to participate, but after a few weeks most students will usually participate.