Mrs. Willyerd's Virtual Classroom: Mysterious M&Ms

Students in Mrs. Willyerd's 4th Period Class read the graduated cylinder
at eye level during the Mysterious M&M Lab.

This week students worked on becoming better scientists. We really focused on making good scientific observations, constructing a well-written hypothesis that is testable, and summarizing the results in a conclusion statement. Students conducted two labs in order to practice these skills - a gummy bear lab and the Mysterious M&Ms lab.

The M&M lab had students examine one M&M and observe the texture, color, weight, size, state of matter, and any other observations the student could make. Students then had to break open their M&M and sketch a cross-section of the M&M labeling the outer shell, the inner shell, and the chocolate center. The next part used another M&M that was placed in the bottom of a shallow bowl. Water was added to the bowl and students had to observe the M&M for one minute. After the minute passed, the students then sketched and described their observations. Ask your student what happened to their M&M!

Students were able to share their sketches and descriptions using our document camera on the Smart Board. Sharing on the document camera helped students improve their work by receiving peer and teacher feedback. It also provided a great incentive for students to try their best because the best one in the class would always be shown along with some other examples that might need some "fixing up."

An excellent sketch of a cross-section of an M&M by a first period student.

Next week, students design their own M&M lab that should include detailed procedures. Today we did a Peanut Butter and No Jelly demonstration on how it was easy to follow detailed procedures and how it might be tough to guess what they should do when given poorly written procedures. Hopefully, we will see some well-written procedures on Monday's lab!