Probability and Statistics
M & M Worksheet
Prerequisites:
To determine mean, median and mode
To determine standard deviation
Materials Needed:
A bag of plain M & M's for each group of students
Handout for each student
Instructions to the teacher for Conducting Activity:
1. Divide the class into groups of two or three students and giveeach group
a bag of plain M &M's.
2. Give each student a handout.
3. Discussion before the bags are opened:
a. How many M & M's are in each bag?
b. How many of each color?
c. Will all six colors be in each bag ?
d. Which color will occur the most? the least?
4. The Mars Company gave the following percentages:
Brown 30 %
Red 20 %
Yellow 20 %
Orange 10 %
Green 10 %
Tan 10 %
Because an M & M is not of uniform size, they give the
approximate number per small bag as 45 to 50.
Variation:
This can be used at a lower level to show operations with fractions
and changing fractions to decimals and to percents.
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M & M Worksheet
1. Count the number of M & M's in yoru bag (before you eat them
!!)
How many are:
Brown ? _______________________
Yellow ? _______________________
Green ? ________________________
Tan ? __________________________
Red ? __________________________
Orange ? ________________________
What is the total number ? __________
2. If you were going to draw one M & M from your bag, what would
the odds be of getting:
1 brown? _________________________
1 yellow? _________________________
1 green? __________________________
1 tan? ____________________________
1 red? ____________________________
1 orange? _________________________