At home in New Zealand my class is doing probability for maths. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco I played a game that looked at the probability of a person getting Asthma.
Eight percent of American's develop Asthma. There are different things that make the probability of you getting asthma higher or lower. Some aren't you're fault they're your genetic make-up. Others are things that you do or choices that you make.
On the game I made choices for a person called Jane.
First I looked at her DNA. DNA is the instructions that tell your cells how to make your body. It's like a body recipe. Everyone has different DNA so everyone looks different and has different health risks.
First I chose what kind of DNA make up Jane had.
There were a couple of DNA factors that changed her probability of getting Asthma.
Then I had to choose whether she got a severe cold with wheezing as a child.
Then I had to choose where she grew up - in the country or the city...
... and whether she smoked...
In the end all of those things added up to tell me the probability of Jane getting asthma.
By making different choices I could change her chances.
It was fun to see how probability could work in a real life situation.
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