A yes or no wheel does one thing: it answers a yes or no question, fairly. That turns out to be handy in a classroom. Here are six ways to use ours, and what to check before you put it on the board.
1. Teach probability with real spins
Ask the class to predict how many YES answers you’ll get in 20 spins. Write the guesses on the board, then spin and keep a tally.
Most classes land somewhere near 10. Hitting exactly 10 happens only about 1 time in 6, and that’s the lesson. Then show them what happens with a lot more spins: we ran our wheel’s math a million times, and YES came up 50.03% of the time.
2. Settle small class decisions
“Do we read outside today?” “Do we start with the warm-up?” When either answer is fine, a spin settles it in ten seconds, and nobody can say the teacher picked.
3. Decide who goes first
Name one team and ask, “Does Team A go first?” A YES or NO on the big screen ends the argument before it starts.
4. Spin for a bonus
At the end of a review, ask the wheel, “Does the class earn a bonus question?” The suspense does the work.
5. Take a brain break
When the room is fading, ask Should I Do It? whether it’s time for a two-minute stretch. If it lands on DO IT, everybody stands up.
6. Add a twist to story writing
Students write a scene, then spin the Yes, No or Maybe Wheel at a turning point. “Does the character open the door?” YES, NO or MAYBE decides how the next paragraph goes. MAYBE is the fun one.
Before you put it on the board
Open the yes or no wheel on your classroom computer and spin it once yourself.
There’s nothing for students to sign in to and nothing for them to type. You ask the question out loud, so the site never sees it.
Tap the speaker button if you’d rather spin without the sound.
The site is free because it shows ads. Give the page a quick look first, the way you would with any website you show your class. Our privacy policy lists exactly what the site collects.
Why a wheel works for this
Every spin is a fair 50/50, and the wheel doesn’t remember the last spin. So when a student says “It’s rigged,” you can show them the million-spin numbers and turn the complaint into a math lesson.