Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I did the experimeny but the results turned out wierd. The subjects ate the M&M's that were the same color of the paper(habitat). The camouflage did not work with the 1st trial. I don't know how to explain why that happened. On my second trial my hypothesis was confirmed by the M&M's that were the same color of the paper(habitat) did not get eaten or eaten a lot. PLEASE HELP MY PROJECT IS DUE SOON AND I CAN"T FIGURE IT OUT. Thanks for you help.

ens,

I would reccomend repeating your experiment a couple of more times if possible. Variation is an important part of science, and this is what you are experinceing. Try running your experiment again and see what happens.

I agree with Terik, run the experiment several more times and see how the camouflaged M&Ms do on average.

That said--what do you think explains your results? What color construction paper did you use? Did it closely match the colors of the M&Ms, or was it different? Were people deliberately picking out the M&Ms that matched the paper because they 'knew' what was supposed to happen in the experiment? What were the lights like? Did the M&Ms cast shadows on the paper? If so, how well camouflaged do you think they really were?