Week 13: Density and M&Ms

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 What did you learn?

This week, I learned that when you add sugar to water, the water gets denser, so dissolving other substances into the water will take longer because there are more and bigger molecules in the water. I also learned that different colors of M&M coating take different amounts of time to dissolve in water.

Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already know?

Yes! I already knew that when things heat up the molecules move faster, which we saw in the M&M activity with water of different temperatures. When the water was hotter, the molecules were moving faster, so the coating dissolved into the water faster. I also already knew that the sugar water would slow the dissolving of the coating, but I wasn't entirely sure why it would, so this experiment helped to explain it.

How can you apply what you've learned to your future teaching?

The M&M activity is one that is very easy to do and requires few materials to complete, so it's great for an elementary classroom with many students. It also involves candy, which should help to keep children engaged in the lesson. For these reasons I think I would use this activity in my future classrooms. I think having the option of testing sugar water or different water temps was a good example of giving some differentiation and choice in the classroom, which gives students more autonomy in the classroom which is obviously great. 

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