Harvard Develops Math Curriculum for Youth

Gambling is risking something of value on the outcome of an event that is uncertain. We all gamble in everyday life, and children are no different. Research indicates that by the time they graduate from high school, almost 90 percent of young people will have gambled by placing a bet or a wager. By the time they enter the seventh grade, about 50 percent of young people have gambled. The youth population is at a higher risk for developing gambling-related problems than adults. These sobering statistics reveal the need for new approaches dealing with problem gambling among young people.

To respond to this need, Harvard Medical School's Division on Addictions developed "Facing the Odds: The Mathematics of Gambling and Other Risks," a middle-school curriculum on probability, statistics and number sense designed to increase young people's mathematics literacy while concurrently preventing or reducing their participation in risky and potentially addictive behaviors. The goal of the curriculum is to increase students' interest in math and improve students' critical thinking ability, number sense and knowledge of the mathematics of gambling so that they can develop rational views about gambling and make their own informed choices when confronted with gambling opportunities. "Facing the Odds" was developed as part of a larger science curriculum funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse with support from the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

In 2000, the state of Louisiana adopted this curriculum for its statewide education program in response to new legislation requiring gambling curricula in the public and private school systems. Preliminary reports indicate an enthusiastic response from teachers and students. Beth Miller, a master teacher in mathematics in Louisiana, wrote about one teacher's experience:

"The enthusiasm that all of her students displayed was phenomenal. At the end of the 12 activities, we had the students respond to the following question, 'If you win the million dollar lottery, would you quit your job or continue to work?' Almost all of the students said that they would continue their job because of the taxes and inflation. They said that they would not have enough money to live on.

"After working with the six teachers, we all agree that the math content in the curriculum is more exciting, rich, and rigorous than the one we had been currently using for probability and statistics. After the first year of participating in the pilot, our students have become better problem-solvers. The students look forward to expressing their thoughts orally and in written form."

There is nationwide interest in "Facing the Odds" as other states begin to consider how to best support prevention of youth gambling. Dr. Howard Shaffer, director of the Division on Addictions and lead author of the curriculum, has been invited to provide a workshop on the curriculum at the annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Las Vegas in April 2002.

Thanks to support from the American Gaming Association and the National Center for Responsible Gaming, "Facing the Odds" is available online as well as in hard copy format. Hard-copy versions can be purchased for $50 by contacting Christine Reilly of the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders at 617-432-0297 or via e-mail at christine_reilly@hms.harvard.edu. The cost covers printing, handling and shipping.

To access the free online version, visitwww.hms.harvard.edu/doa, click on "Facing the Odds," and submit the registration form to obtain the password for accessing the files. This process will allow the Division to follow up with users of the curriculum and evaluate the effectiveness of this program.

"Facing the Odds" is a work in progress, and the process of refinement and enhancement will benefit from a dialogue among teachers, policy-makers, scientists, students and the creators of this curriculum.