Hmmmm.....need a sweet investigation? Need an activity students can "sink" their teeth into?

One activity that often whets student appetites for learning is the M&M Investigation. There are many versions of the activity, described in books such as M&M's Brand Counting Book and More M&M's Brand Chocolate Candies Math by McGrath and Glass (available at www. amazon.com). This activity is adapted from one described in Spreadsheet Magic by Pamela Lewis (available at www.iste.org).

Overall question: How does the M&M company fill the bags of delicious candies?

Your task is to investigate, with the help of your classmates, the number and color of M&M candies placed in a bag and reach a decision as to how the company fills the bags. Questions you might ask include:

• Are all the bags the same?
• Are they different?
• If so, how?

You will need to document this information, and we will use a database as the tool to help us collect and organize the data on which we will base our solution. The database tutorial will provide you with the skills you need to accomplish this part of your task.

Next, you will need to analyze the data you have collected with the aid of a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet tutorial will walk you through this task.

• Use the provided bag of M&Ms to count and sort the candies into patterns.
• Share your information with your classmates by completing the Database Tutorial.
• At this point, you should be able to answer the questions:
  • Did everyone have the same total number of candies in their bag? Why or why not?
  • Was the number of each color the same for all bags? Who had the most of each color? Who had the least?
  • How do you think the M&M company fills the bags? Is it random? Do they intentionally try to have a certain amount of each color?
• Complete the Spreadsheet tutorial to find the answer of how you think the M&M company fills the bags.
• Enjoy your data.......outside of the lab!