Winston Salem Times

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools issued the following announcement on January 7.

JANUARY 7, 2022 – Perhaps one day, people in casinos around the world will play games of chance created by students at the Career Center such as “Dice n’ Cookies,” “Big Mama Dice Game” and “Roll It. Flip It. Win It. Yee Haw!”

What we know for sure is that, on Friday Jan. 7, students at Career Center were having big fun playing those and other games of chance created as a learning project by students taking Advanced Placement Statistics.

After Gregory Fisher, who teaches AP Statistics, challenged his students to work in teams of two to design a game of chance as a way to learn more about probabilities and such, the students went to work. As with games in real casinos, the games had to be designed so that, over time, the “house” would make money and players would lose money but not so much that they wouldn’t want to play.

Most of the students taking AP Statistics are seniors. Some are juniors. All of them come from home schools throughout Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

Casino 55On Friday, teams set up their casino games in the commons area of the Career Center. Along with students in the AP Statistics classes, students taking other classes were invited to play. Each student was issued $20 in play money.

Statistically, most could expect that money to disappear if they played long enough. Luck and finesse would be with some of them, though, and players who won $40 by the end of their session were invited to enter a drawing for prizes.

No matter whether they won or lost, students could enjoy refreshments created by students in the Culinary Arts program.

Many students had dressed up for the casino. Some were wearing ties to make them look as if they were working in a casino.

Ava Shick (Reynolds) and Abby Smith (West Forsyth) had created a game called “Roll It. Flip It. Win It. Yee Haw!” and Shick added to the Wild West atmosphere by wearing a cowboy hat and boots.  

John Heafner and Graeme Reed, whose home school is Atkins, wanted to create a game that used dice, and they came up with game called “Against the Odds.”

Heafner said he particularly enjoyed the brainstorming and designing part of the project. For Reed, making the poster was an enjoyable bonus.

Although the majority of the games in the casino included dice, such casino staples as “roulette wheels” and playing cards were integral to the action in some games.

Win 56That was the case with the game designed by Anna Zwigard and Ava Ginn, whose home school is Reynolds.

“We wanted to do something like roulette,” Zwigard said.

“And we like colors,” Ginn said.

So, when they borrowed a roulette-like wheel from “The Game of Life” and created the rules for “Spin to Win,” people could win not only by landing on multiples of 3 but also by landing on the green squares.

Ginn takes art at Reynolds, so she used her talents to create two vivid posters.

Daniel Kindy, whose home school is Atkins, and Joel Stopya, whose home school is Reynolds, came up with a game called “High Roller” in which the numbers on the two dice rolled by a player are compared to the single number on the 10-sided die that the dealer rolls.

“I’m rather proud of it,” Kindy said.

The process of designing the game was both fun and challenging, they said. Calculating all of the probabilities associated with the different combinations was enough to make your head hurt a wee bit.  

Cookies 24Although Kindy enjoyed designing their poster, when he came in and saw the other posters, he felt as if it was a bit modest compared to some of them.

Kindy envisions a career in computer science and is considering both N.C. State and Appalachian State. N.C. State has the perk of having Howling Cow ice cream available on campus.

No need to go to Raleigh for a treat, though. Right next to the “Against the Odds” station, the “Dice n’ Cookies” station designed by Tyler Grimes and Sophie Jones, whose home school is Reagan, was offering Chips Ahoy! cookies to those who stopped to play

As Grimes saw it, coming up with a game that offered cookies was a sure way to attract players.

“We are really banking on the cookies,” he said.

As great at Chips Ahoy! cookies are, he said, his mother’s snickerdoodles and other cookies are even better.

“My mom makes really good cookies,” he said.

Grimes was careful to post the rules and odds in a way that a player could readily determine the odds.

Giant 78“Honesty is key,” he said.

On a day that started in the 20s and had gusts of wind that made it feel even colder, Sadie Thomas and Cece Shields, whose home school is Reynolds, had the ill fortune to be assigned a table by the main entrance. When a door opened, the cold air would swirl.

They didn’t let it chill their spirits, though.

While other games used standard dice, the “Big Mama Dice Game” used jumbo, custom-made dice. The dice were 8 inches on a side. When making them, foam board proved to be an uncooperative material. So Thomas called on pink duct tape for assistance.

At the end of the day, they were going to give the dice to Fisher as a gift if he wanted them.

Thomas and Shields added a buzzer that they could press to deliver an “I’m sorry, you lost!” message.

“I thought the buzzer was fun,” Thomas said.

Flip 34“Big Mama” winning rollers received a sticker.

Thomas and Shields established the rules for their game so that 15 out of 36 times a player would win and 21 out of 36 times victory would go to the “house.”

Thomas has been baking for her family just about as long as she can remember, and, if a career as a baker awaits her, she would find it satisfying.

Shields is planning to head to Appalachian State and foresees a career in psychology.

With Mount Tabor being the Spartans, it was easy to guess that Mount Tabor is the home school for Kris Wooten and Meg Salt – the creators of “Spartan Roll.”

Both thoroughly enjoyed the project in large part because it was such a new experience.

“It was something unique I haven’t done in any class before,” Wooten said.

Wooten’s favorite number is 7 – “it’s a fun number” – and Salt’s is 8. It’s her mother’s lucky number so that makes it special to her.

Jordan 76At “Jordan & Emma’s Casino,” there was no sign of Jordan because a soccer adventure had taken her to Florida. So Emma McNeill, who is also a Spartan, was helping such players at Elliott Trinh and Spenser Reynolds.

Reynolds liked that a winning roll at “Jordan and Emma’s” had such a high payoff.

“If you win, you get a lot of money,” he said.

Luck was with him. So he was rolling again and again.

“I enjoy being competitive,” he said.

After one roll diminished his winnings, he decided it was time to move on.  

Opportunities galore awaited Reynolds and the other students.

Original source can be found here.