M&M Selection

Apologia Land Animals Chapter 1 Experiment


They look so innocent, these three.  But, in reality, they are fierce predators about to go on an M&M hunt.   First, they had to stop and write a list of all the materials they needed.

Gathering of M&M 'animals'

Next, they gathered all the M&M's to be sorted and counted.

Sorting into 'species'

Then, they built the M&M's a colorful habitat where some 'species' could hide.

Building the habitat

I'm SO hungry!

Finally, the hunt is on.  A timed hunt where the predators had to LOOK for their prey.

Run, M&M's, RUN!

Afterward, it was discovered that certain species are more likely to survive in the construction paper habitat.  Natural selection had made it's choice.  Goodbye red M&M's, your species won't last long according to our experiment.  Yellow and orange were GREAT at camouflaging themselves so they will probably be around for awhile.  

Kids had a great time and I think they learned a few things :)