Australia's Science Forum

Hi All,
We have been doing the M&M prac for "Simulating radioactive decay" ex Core Science Stage 5. I was wondering has anyone modified it with something more sustainable rather than buying M&M's each time a teacher wanted to do it? You need 100 (for each group/student) of something that has 2 different faces? I thought of coins I would have to count out at least 800 coins so if anyone has a simpler version of the prac, I would love to here your suggestions.
Thanks
Cathy

We use wooden cubes, 100 pieces cost 3.90. I spray painted one side, you can draw X or O on one side or put small sticker. You can use counters different colours with X sign on one side
After all this work they still use M&M
Wooden cubes are not sweet as lollies

We just use the counters with an "X" on one side. Haven't had to do 800 though!

Where's the fun in wooden blocks and plastic counters. Someone has already gone to the trouble of putting an M on one side of a round sugar coated multi coloured chocolate disc. The incentive is there to play the game and enjoy eating the end product. Sometimes there are leftovers for the lab tech to enjoy. It's really good when I can get the packets of M&M's on special. I dispense them into ziplock bags (88 per bag). We use plastic drinking cups as shakers. The cups are recycled for other experiments like making slime, rocks etc.

Same here Lyn!! Love the leftovers!!

Jazz wrote:We use wooden cubes, 100 pieces cost 3.90. I spray painted one side, you can draw X or O on one side or put small sticker. You can use counters different colours with X sign on one side
After all this work they still use M&M
Wooden cubes are not sweet as lollies

Thank you a shame they still use M&M's

Alright, I confess. I was not a proponent of M&M's when the first teacher put this prac forward. But someone out in Scienceland was hoping to make science entertaining and it was a lightbulb moment when whoever writes these science textbooks was able to see the value of entertainment with reward at the end of a prac that showed radioactive decay. Yes it is time consuming having to go and buy the M&M's, ziplock bags and plastic cups and to then count the M&M's into fiddly small bags and keep everything hygienic. However the kids love it and who knows, the sweet reinforcement may generate some budding genius. If you can't get M&M's then I believe Skittles are an alternative.

P.S. and yes, leftovers are rewarding. Sometimes you just need that sugar fix.

Being a lover of chocolate, I agree its a great incentive. But the HOD wants to reduce the pracs that have this element mostly to cut costs. I don't think he believe it is worth the cost!!!
So thank you all for the ideas of whom have had to go down this track as well.

Watch the Skittles - we had a student have an anaphylactic reaction to them when we tried to get away from chocolate.

We are just doing eatable plant and animal cells.
Done with jelly and lots od lollies. Only done in last few days of term as a reward for surviving another year.
They use lime jelly as plant cytoplasm, strawberry jelly as animal cytoplasm,
large balls as nucleus, jelly beans as mitochondria etc. Do it in plastic cup and eat it after.
Lada

lada wrote:We are just doing eatable plant and animal cells.
Done with jelly and lots od lollies. Only done in last few days of term as a reward for surviving another year.
They use lime jelly as plant cytoplasm, strawberry jelly as animal cytoplasm,
large balls as nucleus, jelly beans as mitochondria etc. Do it in plastic cup and eat it after.
Lada

Sounds delicious.

Radioactive decay? Sounds more like tooth decay!
We do the M&M's too, but we never get any leftovers