Subject: Mathematics
Class: Junior Secondary School 2 (JSS 2)
Term: Third Term
Week: 9
Topic: Probability
✍️ Written by: Mrs. Emily Bolujo – The Sovereign Educator | Lessonshabitat.com

—

LESSON TITLE: Understanding Basic Probability
DURATION: 40 minutes – 1 hour
CURRICULUM STANDARD: Nigerian NERDC Curriculum for Mathematics (JSS2 – Week 9)

—

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Define probability in simple terms.

2. Identify the possible outcomes of an event.

3. Calculate the probability of an event using fractions.

4. Apply probability to real-life situations (e.g. tossing coins, selecting names, drawing cards).

—

Keywords:

• Probability

• Outcomes

• Likelihood

• Event

• Impossible

• Certain

• Fraction

• Experiment

—

✳️ SET INDUCTION (Story-Based Introduction):

“Chinedu and Amina were playing a game of chance during break time. They took a coin and agreed: ‘If it lands on HEADS, I win, if it lands on TAILS, you win.’ As they played, Chinedu noticed something — sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. He asked, ‘Is there a way to know how likely I am to win?’”

Teacher to class: “If you were Chinedu, how would you measure your chances of winning? That, my children, is the power of probability — a tool to understand chances in life and math.”

—

ENTRY BEHAVIOUR:

The teacher asks:

• “Who has played a game with dice before?”

• “When you pick a card from a shuffled deck, do you know which one you’ll get?”
  Learners are allowed to share brief experiences.

—

TEACHING METHODS & RESOURCES:

• Interactive discussion

• Practical demonstrations (coins, dice, colored papers)

• Board work

• Activity sheets

—

LESSON EXPLANATION:

1. What is Probability?
Probability is the measure of how likely an event is to happen.

2. Common Probability Words:

• Certain (It must happen)

• Likely (It may happen)

• Unlikely (It probably won’t happen)

• Impossible (It can never happen)

3. Calculating Probability:
Formula:
Probability of an event =
Number of favourable outcomes ÷ Total number of possible outcomes

Example 1:
If you toss a coin, there are 2 possible outcomes: Head or Tail.
What is the probability of getting a Head?
Answer: 1 ÷ 2 = ½

Example 2:
A bag contains 3 red balls and 2 blue balls. What is the probability of picking a red ball?
Total balls = 5
Red balls = 3
Probability = 3 ÷ 5 = ⅗

4. Real-Life Examples in Nigeria:

• Tossing a coin before a football match

• Selecting a prefect’s name from a hat

• Drawing a lucky number in a raffle draw

• Guessing the gender of a newborn baby (boy or girl)

—

CLASS ACTIVITY:

Provide each group with:

• 1 coin

• 1 dice

• Small colored papers (red, blue, green)

Instructions:

1. Toss the coin 10 times. Record how many times Head appears.

2. Roll the dice 12 times. Record how many times number “4” shows.

3. Pick one colored paper randomly without looking. Return and repeat 10 times. Record color outcomes.

Each group calculates the probability of each result.

—

‍ TEACHER-PUPIL INTERACTION (Sample Dialogue):

Teacher: “If I roll a fair die, what’s the chance I’ll get number 7?”
Student: “Number 7 doesn’t exist on a die!”
Teacher: “Exactly! So the probability is…?”
Class: “Zero! Impossible!”
Teacher: “Excellent. That’s how probability helps us reason logically.”

—

BOARD SUMMARY:

—

EVALUATION QUESTIONS:

1. Define probability.

2. If a die is rolled, what is the probability of getting a 5?

3. A bag contains 4 blue balls and 1 green ball. What is the probability of picking a green ball?

4. What is the probability of getting a tail when a coin is tossed?

5. What is the meaning of “impossible” in probability?

6. List two real-life events that involve probability.

7. What is the total number of outcomes in tossing a coin?

8. Why must probability be between 0 and 1?

9. Can the probability of an event be more than 1? Explain.

10. If 3 out of 10 students picked mango juice, what’s the probability a student picked mango?

—

ASSIGNMENT:

1. Draw a table showing all the possible outcomes of rolling a dice and tossing a coin once.

2. Solve: A bag has 2 red pens, 3 blue pens, and 5 green pens. What is the probability of picking a blue pen?

—

HOME CONNECTION:

Ask your parent or guardian to help you observe an event at home where chance is involved — like picking a spoon from a set, guessing what’s for dinner, or flipping a coin. Write down the outcomes and describe the probability!

—

SEO Block (for lessonshabitat.com)

• Focus Keyword: Probability

• SEO Title: Week 9 Mathematics Lesson Note JSS 2 – Introduction to Probability

• Slug: jss2-mathematics-week9-probability-lesson-note

• Meta Description: Explore this EEAT-optimized Mathematics lesson note on Probability for JSS 2, Week 9. Includes Nigerian classroom examples, practical activities, and probability calculations