Subby's Calculation Coloring Page

About this page

While the rest of the Squad dreams and debates, Subby the Robot does what he does best, crunching the numbers. Math symbols swirl around his head as he works out how likely each guess is to come true. This page introduces the idea that predictions are not all equally strong, some are more likely than others, and thinking about chances is part of making a smart guess. It also shows technology as a teammate rather than a mystery box, a helper that supports the Squad's thinking instead of replacing it. Subby computes, but the Squad still decides.

The research skill

Subby sits surrounded by plus, minus, times, and equals signs, clearly working something out. The skill is reasoning about chance: sorting outcomes into certain, likely, unlikely, and impossible. A hypothesis gets stronger when you can say how likely it is, not just whether it could happen, and that is the Chapter 3 connection. Young children learn the words first and the numbers later. In school math this grows into probability, and in real research it becomes the statistics that help scientists judge whether a result was luck.

Try it at home

Play the likely game with a pillowcase and some socks. Put three socks of one color and one sock of another color inside. Ask your child which color they will probably pull out, and why. Pull one out, put it back, and repeat ten times, making a tally mark for each color. Look at the tallies together: did the more common color show up more often? Then change the mix, predict again, and let your child be the calculator, just like Subby.

Talk about it while you color

• What do you think Subby is trying to figure out with all those numbers?
• If you asked a robot helper one question, what would you ask?
• Which of those floating symbols do you like best, and where would you color it?