Representing Probabilities with Pipe Diagrams
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Probability is a notoriously difficult concept. Even after much instruction, many students remain confused both about methods used to calculate a probability and about its meaning (Konold 1991). In this article, I shall describe a modified version of the tree diagram that many of my students at both the high school and college levels have found helpful in making probabilities more meaningful. I refer to these representations as pipe diagrams. Although most readers are probably familiar with tree diagrams, I review a few of their basic features before introducing pipe diagrams and discussing their educational advantages.
Footnotes
Clifford Konold has been developing probability and data-analysis curricula and software with funding from the National Science Foundation.
