Natural Selection M&M Lab

Purpose/Objective(s):
- To describe the importance of coloration in avoiding predation
- To explain how natural selection causes populations to change
Materials:

M&Ms
Skittles
Clean plate
Small clean collecting container
Stop watch
Calculator
Lab notebook

Procedure

EVERY SINGLE GROUP MEMBER MUST HAVE FLOWCHART, HYPOTHESIS, DATA

TABLES, AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS.
Part I
1) Group leader will be the person will be responsible for running the lab and setting up the M&Ms.

DO NOT EAT ANY M&MS UNTIL THE END OF THE LAB (-1 point for
each candy eaten before the end of the lab).
2) Place the regular sized M&Ms on the clean plate- 10 of each color: Yellow, blue, green, brown, red, and
orange. Spread them out evenly on the plate.
3) Copy the table below to your notebook. Title the page Natural Selection M&M Lab. Record the color
and number of each color in the table.
M&M Color
Example: Red

Total #
(Population)
Example: 4

# Selected (eaten)

# Left (Survived)

% Survival

Example: 3

Example: 1

Example: 1/4 =
25%

4) Devise a hypothesis about which color M&M will have the highest survival percentage in your
environment. Write this hypothesis in your lab notebook.
Hypothesis __________________________________________________________________________

5) Choose three members of your group to be M&Ms birds. The birds should keep their eyes closed as the
leader spreads out the candies
a. They should make a "beak" using their pointer finger and thumb for collecting M&M's candies, as
shown in Figure 1.
b. You will set a timer (or watch a stopwatch) for 20 seconds. During those 20 seconds, the volunteers
will use their beak to quickly pick up M&M's and quickly put them in their other hand.
i.
Put M&Ms aside to be used again in part II. (Groups will only receive a set number of
M&Ms. DO NOT EAT or you will not have enough M&Ms for both experiments)
6) After 20 seconds, fill in the data table with the results from experiment.
Part II
1) Group leader will be the person will be responsible for running the lab and setting up the M&Ms.

DO NOT EAT ANY M&MS UNTIL THE END OF THE LAB (-1 point for
each candy eaten before the end of the lab).
2) Place the regular sized M&Ms on the clean plate- 10 of each color: Yellow, blue, green, brown, red, and
orange. Spread them out evenly on the plate.
3) Prepare different "habitats" using Skittles candies. Do this by counting and placing 60 Skittles of a single
color on the plate. (Each group will get a different color and share results)
4) Copy the table below to your notebook. Title the page Natural Selection M&M Lab. Record the color
and number of each color in the table.
M&M Color
Example: Red

Total #
(Population)
Example: 4

# Selected (eaten)

# Left (Survived)

% Survival

Example: 3

Example: 1

Example: 1/4 =
25%

5) Devise a hypothesis about which color M&M will have the highest survival percentage in your
environment. Write this hypothesis in your lab notebook.
Hypothesis __________________________________________________________________________
6) Choose three members of your group to be M&Ms birds. The birds should keep their eyes closed as the
leader spreads out the candies
c. They should make a "beak" using their pointer finger and thumb for collecting M&M's candies, as
shown in Figure 1.
d. You will set a timer (or watch a stopwatch) for 20 seconds. During those 20 seconds, the volunteers
will use their beak to quickly pick up M&M's and quickly put them in their other hand.
i.
They can eat the same number of candies as they picked up. (But they should not eat any
candies until you are all done testing.)
e. The M&Ms bird must avoid picking up any Skittles candies because Skittles make the M&M's birds
sick. They cause M&Ms birds to die and cannot get anymore M&Ms.

f. The Skittles represent the habitat that the M&M's candies live in.
7) After 20 seconds, fill in the data table with the results from experiment.
8) The leader must allow the remaining M&Ms to breed. Place one M&M of the same color for each
remaining M&M.
9) Repeat experiment.
10) Fill in data table with results.
11) Clean up lab
12) Eat Candies
13) Answer Discussion Questions

Figure 1

Discussion Question
1) What was the color of your environment? What is represented by the M&Ms? What do you represent?
(think about species interactionshint hint predator/prey hint hint)
2) In Part II of the lab, which colors had the highest survival percentage? Did this support your hypothesis?
Why or why not?
3) In Part II of the lab, which colors had the lowest survival rates? Why were these colors selected more
often than others?
4) Is coloration an important factor in successful predation? Explain why?
5) What is the relationship between the environment and the color of the M&Ms selected?
6) Explain how skittle color effected the survival rate of the M&Ms. How did this simulated natural
selection?
7) What is the relationship between natural selection and evolution?
**IF THE LAB IS NOT FINISHED DURING CLASS, YOUR ENTIRE GROUP WILL STAY
AFTERSCHOOL TO FINISH IT**