Decision Tree

I recently introduced the girls to decision trees in one of our living math sessions. Decision trees are used to sort and classify things, so the simplest way to learn about one seemed to be to perform an experiment which we did.

 

 

From the book; Understanding Math - Graphs and Charts

You will need:

• 3 tsp flour, 3 tsp salt, 3 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 3 tsp icing sugar in four identical containers and not marked so you don't know which container contains which.
• vinegar
• water
• ice cube tray
• plate to mix substances on
• tsp to measure

Then follow the decision tree (pictured above) to work out what each substance is.

First of all mix one teaspoon of each of the four powders with some vinegar.

Secondly, you need to mix 1 teaspoon of the remaining three substances with some water,

Thirdly you will need to dissolve one teaspoonful of the last two substances in five teaspoonfuls of water. Pour the two mixtures into separate ice cube trays (we simply used one end for each in one tray)  and put them in the freezer for one hour.

The girls had a ball and declared it their best math class ever!