Local lotto: Mathematics and mobile technology to study the lottery

Local Lotto is a 14-session curriculum designed for high school students to learn mathematics through an examination of the local lottery. The curriculum is organized around investigations of how local lottery games are won, who plays, how many people play, and where lottery revenues and prizes are distributed. A web-based application is integrated into the curriculum to allow students to explore the lottery in their school neighborhood, examine local lottery data, and assemble and justify their own arguments about the lottery. In this chapter, the authors describe technology's role in shaping a rich curriculum that engages students in investigating a local phenomenon while also addressing the content and practices of the Common Core State Standards of Mathematics. The chapter concludes with an outline of the challenges of integrating custom technologies into mathematics curricula and provides recommendations for future work.