The Pedagogy and Probability of the Dice Game HOG

Abstract

The dice game HOG has been used successfully in a variety of educational situations as an activity that not only introduces students to concepts in probability, statistics, and simulation but also fosters student interest in these concepts. This article presents several areas in the statistics curriculum where important concepts can be dealt with in a hands-on way. These areas include probability as decision making, experimental versus theoretical probability, expected value, and optimization.

This article explains the rules for HOG, gives examples of students' understanding, develops the probability theory, and identifies a “best” strategy for playing the game. This “best” strategy is developed in the context of fair six-sided dice and then generalized to fair s-sided dice.

• Expected value
• Optimization
• Probability