M&M math (& science)

[science_spot]

 

Banner above modifed from M&Ms/Mars

 

Looking for an easy (delicious) math and science exercise to do with the kids?  Just curious about the statistics of M&M colors and prints??  Here is an easy activity, outlined to explore the Scientific Method.  And the best part (besides the candy) is that you can easily modify this to work with any age child.

Ask a Question.  Scientific research is never performed "to see what happens".  We are always trying to answer a well-defined question.

What is the typical color distribution in a one pound bag of M&M's?

Do Background Research - it's important to identify what is already known about your topic, and how this information relates to your question.

Discuss previous M&M experiences.  Do you normally see only one color candy in a bag?  Do the colors vary by season or M&M variety?

Construct a Hypothesis.  Answer your question with your best educated guess, based on your background research.  Often researchers start with the "null hypothesis", which simply means your hypothesis will be "no difference".

Null Hypothesis - There is no difference in the number of M&M's of each color.

Since we have background knowledge of M&M's, we are pretty certain the Null Hypothesis will be rejected with our data, so we propose our true hypothesis.

Working Hypothesis - One color M&M makes up the majority of the color in a one pound bag of M&M's.  (note we did not identify a color)

Test your hypothesis using an experiment.  It is important to design an experiment that will provide data to either accept or reject your Working Hypothesis.

Experimental outline:

1.  Separate the M&M's by color.

2.  Count the number of M&M's in each pile and record on a piece of paper (your data sheet).

3.  Often scientists repeat their experiments in triplicate (3 times), in order to show reproducability and lack of major variability.  For our purpose this is optional, but advanced kids, or thse in need of something constructive to do, can do this).

Analyze your data and draw a conclusion.  This is where we use our data to see if it supports our Working Hypothesis.

Does your data show a color M&M that is more plentiful than others?  Which color?  What is your conclusion?

Communicate your results.  Scientists often write papers for publication, or present a poster at scientific meetings (much like a science fair).  You can share your results in this post, or on The Science Spot.

 

Here are some suggestions to add more depth to this activity (for advanced students).

Sample Size. Instead of counting the whole bag, can you take a random sample form the bag and draw the sample conclusion?  How does sample size affect your data, and therefore your conclusions?

Replicates.  Count 3 or more bags (individually) and analyze your results.  Does repeating the test affect your conclusions? 

Follow-up experiments. 

1.  Use the conclusion from this experiment to outline a new experiment with a different type of M&M's (such as the bunny mix, dark chocolate or peanut variety)?  What is your expected outcome and does your data support this hypothesis?

2.  Explore a different attribute of the M&M's, such as size (for the peanut variety), perfect "M" print, number with "M" markings, or "duds" (M&M's with bad shape).  For these details, you may need to design a method of sorting them into piles.  For size, you could draw 3-4 small circles on a paper and compare each M&M to the circles in order to sort them by size.  In a method such as this, the sorting may rely on a judgement call.  How does having a different person sort M&M's affect your data?  Their work should be based on their own judgement, but your outlined method.

 

I would love to see your data and hear about your conclusions.  If you take pictures of your activity, I would love to see thse too (it's never too late!).  I am a picture fanatic :)  As always, feel free to ask questions, I love to help! 

Tonya

AKA sunmoonstars

 

 

 

[aenima49]

Mar. 29, 2009 at 9:07 PM

I am too much of a dork, I would take it too far.  I would want to be talking about fractions, the law of large numbers, probability (like reaching in the bag and getting a certain color) etc.  Hee.

[Goodwoman614]

Mar. 30, 2009 at 1:15 AM

Chocolate?  Cool way to rock the scientific method with my 8 year old?  I'm in!!

[sunmoonstars]

Mar. 30, 2009 at 1:06 PM

Oh I hadn't even thought of probabilities!  Great idea!!!

[dottieanna29]

Mar. 30, 2009 at 1:27 PM

This is a really neat idea.  I bet I could even do it with my 3 year old.  Of course, the hard part would be keeping him from eating the M&M's long enough to count, LOL.

[mama4Christ361]

Mar. 30, 2009 at 3:48 PM

LOL I did this in tenth grade in my AP Statistics class! Nice to see fun(and chocolate-y delicious!) activities still out there!