Rebecca Burrows

Math 4161 A

Following the Skittles Rainbow

This activity allows students to be actively engaged in a variety of mathematics activities. It also allows students to become more familiar with one of their favorite candies, Skittles. This learning activity packet incorporates geometry, basic mathematic operations, converting ratios to percentages, and completion of charts and graphs. This activity would be appropriate for fifth grade students at the average range of difficulty.

Name______Date______

  • Skittles are small round candies, originally from the United States. Sold either in packets or in a cup-shaped containers ranging in size from 7.3oz to 48oz, Skittles come in several varieties, including original, tropical, berry, smoothie, mints, and sour, each with five different colors and flavors. The flavor "tart n tangy" was discontinued in 1990. A favorite of children, Skittles have made multiple appearances within pop culture, including in The Simpsons. Skittles have been a European favorite since 1974, SKITTLES Bite Size Candies are introduced in the U.S. by M&M/MARS.

1. What year did M&M/Mars introduce the SKITTLES?______

2. Design your own SKITTLES container. Use geometric shapes in your design.

  • Skittles are well-known for their advertising campaigns. Often associated with rainbows (due to their colors). Skittles slogans include "Taste the rainbow", and there have been several television commercials. Often considered some of the best in the genre, centering on surreal scenes, presumably set in Ireland, with happy people joyously receiving a bounty of Skittles raining from the sky.

3. Originally Skittles contained strawberry (red), orange (orange), grape (purple), lime (green), and lemon (yellow). If you were asked to add a new flavor, or color, to a bag of Skittles, what color would you choose?______

4. Make a prediction about how many of each color Skittle come in the smallest bag.

  • Red______Green______Yellow______
  • Orange______Purple______
  • The Skittles website posts a claim about the distribution of colors in their bags of candy. Skittles claims there should be an equal distribution of flavors. Since there are 5 flavors in each package, each flavor should represent 20 % of the total bag. The following activities will help you determine if this claim holds true.

5. Open your bag of Skittles and compare your predictions with the actual number of candies found in a 2.17 oz. bag of Skittles. Use your findings to complete the chart.

Color / Number of Skittles in Bag
Red
Orange
Yellow
Purple
Green
Total

6. Now create some ratios. Use the information from the chart in #4 to find the ratio for each color. Remember, to create a ratio, you will put the number of the color over the total number of Skittles in the bag.

______Red______Green

______Orange______Purple

______Yellow

7. Convert your ratios to a decimal. You may use your calculator for this section.

______Red______Green

______Orange______Purple

______Yellow

8. Round your decimals in #6 to the nearest hundredths place.

______Red______Green

______Orange______Purple

______Yellow

Now, you are going to convert your decimals into percentages. Your results will help you determine if the Skittles claim holds true.

9. You know you have a rainbow of colors in your Skittles bag. Use the decimals you found to find the percentages of the colors of Skittles in your bag.

______Red______Green

______Orange______Purple

______Yellow

10. Use your percentages to make a pie graph. Use the following blank pie graph to represent the percentages you found. Be sure to put a title, labels, and indicate the percentage of each piece of the graph.

11. Now that you have found your percentages, compare your results with the Skittles claim. Did you find each flavorto represent 20% of the Skittles in your bag? Did the results surprise you? Describe your findings.

______

______

______

______

Answer Key:

  1. 1974
  2. AWV
  3. AWV (Bubble gum- pink)
  4. AWV (Red- 3, Green- 5, Yellow- 4, Orange- 5, Purple- 6)
  5. AWV (Red- 4, Green- 4, Yellow- 4, Orange- 4, Purple- 4)
  6. AWV (Red- 4/20, Green- 4/20, Yellow- 4/20, Orange- 4/20, Purple- 5/20)
  7. AWV (Red- .2, Green- .2, Yellow- .2, Orange- .2, Purple- .2)
  8. AWV (Red- .2, Green- .2, Yellow- .2, Orange- .2, Purple- .2)
  9. AWV (Red- 20%, Green- 20%, Yellow- 20%, Orange- 20%, Purple- 20%)

  1. AWV (ex.- I found the claim to hold true. Each flavor in my bag represented 20% of the total number of skittles in my bag. The results did not surprise me. I thought the company made an accurate claim)