The Psychology of a &near-miss* in the 4-Digit Lottery: A Spreadsheet Simulation

Abstract

The lack of affordable customised software frustrates the implementation of IT-based instruction in the schools. Teachers continue to rely heavily on mathematics worksheets prepared using a word processor, printed out on paper, worked on using pencils and scored with red ink. Low, Tay and Chen proposed that the many features of the ubiquitous spreadsheet be exploited for the benefit of both teachers and students. Constructivist learning is possible with the interactive nature of the &worksheets* produced. Their papers describe the developmental stages achieved and the subsequent progress to the production of an interactive game Football Fractions on CD. This paper introduces another software Near Miss which was written using Visual Basic on Microsoft Excel. While Football Fractions utilised the graphic functions of the spreadsheet to animate the concepts of a fraction as &part of a whole* and as a ratio for the primary school level, Near Miss leverages on the random function to introduce probability at the secondary level. Near-Miss is used to simulate the popular gambling game 4-D so that students may investigate probability and a little psychology. Keywords: constructivist, psychology, probability, spreadsheet.