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DAILY STATISTIC REPORTS for Southern Route - PAGE 1 OF 4
DAILY STATISTIC REPORTS for Northern Route - PAGE 1 OF 4
COMPLETE PROBABILITY LESSON prepared by Paul Miller
with worksheets to determine the probability of identifying the winning musher for this year's race.
Bar Graph
I set up this fairly simple bar graph for my boys and myself to chart our musher's progress through each checkpoint. These pics are not coming out as clearly as I'd like, but I hope you get the idea...
I took 6 sheets of regular graph paper taped together along the 8 1/2 inch edge and wrote each of our musher's names and bib numbers. Making each "bar" three squares high, we were able to chart 7 teams...
Then considering 'each square = 5 miles', I charted out each checkpoint, marking the mileage between the checkpoints in red at the top. The little bar of color at the beginning marks the Ceremonial Start in Anchorage to Eagle River... the real race starts the next morning from Wasilla. I also labeled the 93 mile run between Rohn and Nikolai, known as the 'Farewell Burn' one of the most treacherous stretches in the race, especially when there is little snow... you always heave a sigh of relief when your mushers makes it through and checks into Nikolai.
As each of our mushers checked into a checkpoint, I would mark the date and time and sometimes the number of dogs they had, and the boys would get to color in the graph. At any point in time, you could see who was ahead of who.
At the half-way point, which is the town of Iditarod on the Southern Route during odd numbered years and is Cripple on the Northern route during even numbered years, I made the line thicker, marked a note at top of who had crossed the mark first of all and that musher's date and time. As each of our mushers crossed, I marked in what place they were at.
When the Winner crossed the Finish Line in Nome, we continued to mark their dates and times into each checkpoint, but we stopped coloring in the graph to give us a visual as to where on the trail they were when the first musher got to the end of the race. I would suggest using slashed lines or just coloring in the middle square for the remainder of the race so you can still see who is ahead among you. I am proud to say that my boys displayed a "Come on, you can do it!" attitude toward each other rather than a "Ha, ha, I'm winning!" attitude.
At the Nome checkpoint, we made note of how many dogs our mushers ended the race with. At the end of our graph, we marked everyone's name again, and their final position in the race, along with the Winner's name, date and finish time.
And last, but not least, a holder (paper towel roll) to save our precious graph for posterity's sake - great to look back on over the years.
If you have any questions on this bar graph or any other aspect of my unit study, please e-mail me.
Below is my original note to my friend Marcy on how to make the bar graph.
Questions? Please do not hesitate to email me!
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