Guess the Correlation Game

We were doing line of best fit, linear regression, and correlation coefficients in my 2nd block Algebra II class yesterday. The kids were engaged, so I took them to this website that I accidentally stumbled upon when doing a google search for another website to guess correlation coefficients. I came across Guess the Correlation. I decided to click on this for kicks and giggles. The website that I originally went to was Guessing Correlations, which isn't as challenging as Guess the Correlation. I was unaware at the moment what a goldmine I had found randomly.

I put up the game on the Promethean Board, and I sat at my desk and let students give me values to input for the correlation coefficient. It was so entertaining! My kids were so engaged that I actually had to tell them to calm down. They would name five to six values for the correlation coefficient, and I would make them agree on one for me to put in the computer. The nice thing about this activity is that it gives you the real r-value along with your guessed r-value so that way you can tell your difference from the true correlation coefficient. It was neat because students got somewhat better at predicting the correlation coefficients.

It was nearing the end of class, and I had students begging me to let them play one more round. Then I had several that said that they were going home to play later in the evening. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask them today. I think I might even let them play at the end of the day tomorrow when all of the kiddos are done with their statistics test tomorrow (if there is only like 10-15 minutes, though).

Here are a few screenshots from the website. Let me know what you think and if you do this with your kids!