This document provides guidance for a student designing a science fair experiment to count the number of Skittles of each color in a fun-size packet. It discusses developing a question and hypothesis, identifying variables, writing a procedure to collect data, analyzing and presenting the results.

1. understanding
experimental
design help me
with my science
fair project?

2. Important Reminders:
Due Date: Friday, November 22nd
Grace turn in day without penalty: Monday,
December 2nd
Final project: Display board, log book and a report
– NOT YOUR EXPERIMENT
Pictures: Take a lot including of you doing your
experiment but no faces

3. Where do we start?
Question!
How many Skittles of each color are there in a fun
size packet?

4. What could we
research?
Topic: Manufacturing of Candy

5. What does a good
hypothesis look like?
(Summary) If we count how many of each color
Skittles there are in a fun-size bag,
(Expected Result) Then there will be more yellow
ones
(Research) Because in the past it seemed like
yellow was the most common color.

6. What are my
variables?
Manipulated/Independent Variable:
The thing you (experimenter) is changing
The packet of Skittles
Responding/Dependent Variable:
The thing you are measuring
The number of each color of Skittles
Controls
Things that stay the same for all experiment groups or
trials
Size the of the packet (fun-size)
Type of candy

7. How do I write a
clear procedure?
Materials:
1 bag of fun-size Skittles per person
Procedures:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Take a fun-size bag of Skittles and open it.
Remove Skittles from the bag.
Sort Skittles by color.
Count how many are in each color group.
Record in data table.
Share data with group and class for further analysis.

8. What type of data can
I collect?
Data Chart #1: Individual Results
Color
Purple (Grape)
Green (Green Apple)
Yellow (Lemon)
Red (Strawberry)
Orange (Orange)
# Number of Skittles

9. What should I do with
my data?
Measures of central tendency
Mean, Median, Mode, Range, Standard Deviation
Graph our data
Triple bar graph comparing individual, group and
class
Pie chart

10. What makes a good
conclusion?
Relate your results to your hypothesis. Do your results
support or reject your hypothesis?
Talk about what you learned and discuss results in
detail.
Sources of error: in measuring, in sample size, etc.
Where do you go from here? What would you do
differently next time? How could you extend the
experiment?