Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My sister wants to do the M&M survival challenge for her science fair project but hasn't come up with a testable question that she thinks would work.We were thinking "Does camouflage really make a difference when it comes to the relationship between predators and their prey?" I'm not sure if her teacher will understand what her project is about unless the question actually contains something about the m&ms and the effects of camouflage in different environments (skittles) and how it makes it easier or harder for the predator.

Whether or not your sisters teacher will understand "does camouflage really make a difference when it comes to the relationship between predators and their prey" really depends on what grade your sister is in.

I would recommend talking to the teacher to run your idea past her and to brainstorm other ideas if the teacher decides you need further clarification within your question.

Lily

Hello there,

I actually think "Does camouflage really make a difference when it comes to the relationship between predators and their prey?" is a valid question to ask and can definitely be explored using the M&M survival challenge. In science, we always keep in mind the general, broad question about which we're interested in learning more (in your sister's case, it would be how camouflage affects the relationship between predator and prey), but we then think of more specific experimental systems that we can use to test hypotheses that we have for our questions. Hence, you can address the specifics of the M&M's and such in your experimental approaches, and perhaps even in your hypothesis. For example, your hypothesis can be something like "Camouflage makes it more difficult for predators to pinpoint their prey", and your experimental approach for testing that hypothesis would be having someone pick out specific colored M&M's in different "environments" (i.e. in a pool of skittles of specific colors). I personally think that is comprehensible, but as a previous expert mentioned, it's not a bad idea to let her teacher know about her ideas to see what the teacher thinks about them!

Let us know if you have anymore questions!

Connie

Hi!

I have actually completed a lab similar to the M&M camaflouge experiment you are refering to. From my understanding, this scenario relates to natural selection's effects on diversity. A sample hypothesis could be: If natural selection can affect the characteristics of a species, then it does so by eliminating those with genes not fit for survival. Here is a link to a lab that uses paper dots instead of M&Ms.

http://blogs.canby.k12.or.us/uploads/ho ... ot-lab.pdf

From this experiment, overall, you will see natural selections effects on a population. Please do not hesitate to ask more questions and let us know how this experiment works out for you!