First-year high school students specializing in Social Sciences have conducted an experiment in their Mathematics class to try to verify if the concept of "group wisdom" is fulfilled at Lope de Vega.
The wisdom of the crowd is the idea that masses can make more accurate collective judgments than expert individuals. This idea dates back to an observation made by the British scientist Francis Galton at a rural fair in 1907. At the fair, a guessing game was being held in which participants had to estimate the weight of a slaughtered ox. At the end of the game, Galton collected the 800 estimates and, after a series of calculations, observed that the group's average estimate of the ox's weight was 1.207 pounds. According to the slaughterhouse records, the actual weight was 1.198 pounds. The crowd's judgment had been virtually perfect.
What Francis Galton serendipitously discovered that day in Plymouth was that, given the right circumstances, groups exhibit remarkable intelligence, and are often smarter than the smartest individuals within them. For this to happen, the group doesn't need to be dominated by its most outstanding minds. Even if most of its members aren't particularly well-informed or exceptionally rational, it's still possible for the group to reach a wise decision.
After learning about the origin of this idea and seeing its current applications, the students wanted to see if it could be implemented at their school. To do this, they took a jar and filled it with candy. For a week, they asked all the students, from 6th grade to 2th grade, as well as vocational students, parents, and teaching and non-teaching staff, how many candies they thought might be in the jar.
Once the data was collected, the results were published today, and they are surprising. The average obtained from 516 data points was 3249 candies, while the actual figure was 3251. The difference was 2 candies, an error of 0,07%. AMAZING!
In turn, the study has seen which person made the best estimate, with Professor Carlos Parra's estimate being 3257 candies, making an error of 0,18%.
Ana Todolí and Manuel Valero, the teachers who spearheaded the experiment, commented that it was a positive experience because it made students, teachers, parents, and everyone who participated in the experiment eager to know the result, and that during the waiting period, in many conversations, part of the discussion was about estimating the number of candies, that is, about talking about mathematics.
The results obtained have caused great surprise among the school's educational community, in many cases sparking curiosity about "Group wisdom".
Once again, the Mathematics Department of the School has managed to organize an activity that has had a great impact among the students and the Educational Community.
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