M&M+Excel+Graphing

M&M Counting:
Do you know how many M&Ms are in a typical bag? How many of each color? Is each bag always the same? These are just some of the questions we are going to answer with this activity. We will be following the instructions below as a class by reading each step and then completing it before we go on to the next step.


 * BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR BAG OF M&Ms ** :
 * Write the following labels on the bottom or your sheet of paper leaving room above each color to stack the appropriate M&Ms: Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Brown and Blue.
 * Open your bag of M&M's and sort them by color on your paper creating a graph by stacking your M&Ms by color on your paper as shown in the example below:
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|| >> A2: Student Name (literally type Student Name not your name!) >> B2: Red >> C2: Yellow >> D2: Orange >> E2: Green >> F2: Brown >> G2: Blue >> H2: TOTAL >>>> //Did you notice that no matter how we entered the formula to calculate the total that we started with the equal sign (=)? What does the colon mean in the formula in Step iii (and after)?//
 * ||= Red ||= Yellow ||= Orange ||= Green ||= Brown ||= Blue ||
 * M&M Count: ||=  ||=   ||=   ||=   ||=   ||=   ||
 * 1) Count your totals by color and write your totals on your sheet of paper. After you have written your totals on your paper, put your M&Ms into the bag provided. The candy is yours to keep but **do not eat it in class**!!
 * 2) OPEN EXCEL and create a new workbook following the directions below:
 * 3) Merge and center **'s Candy Counting** in cells A1-H1.
 * 4) Add the following column headings to row 2 in the cells indicated - resize the columns as needed. **Do not use more than one column for each heading!**
 * 1) Change the font color and/or background color of the cells to match each M&M color. For example, either change the font color or background color of cell B2 to red, cell C2 to yellow, etc.
 * 2) Add your totals to your spreadsheet in row 3. Don't worry about the Totals column yet. **SAVE YOUR WORK** as **YOUR NAME - CANDY**.
 * 3) Take your tally sheet and move to the next computer and add your totals to the first blank row. Repeat for all student computers in the lab. When you get back to your computer, your spreadsheet should contain all of the counts for all of the students in the class.
 * 4) Now we're going to calculate totals for each student. We will try different methods to do this so you understand how Excel does totals.
 * 5) For the first student, go to cell H3 and enter **=B3+C3+D3+E3+F3+G3** and then press the Enter key. Did this calculate the total?
 * 6) For the second student, go to cell H4 and enter **=SUM(B4,C4,D4,E4,F4,G4)** and then press the Enter key. Did this calculate the total?
 * 7) For the third student, go to cell H5 and enter **=SUM(B5:G5)** and then press the Enter key. Did this calculate the total?
 * 8) For the fourth student, select cells B6 through H6 and **press the Auto Sum Key [[image:http://stmartinsschool.org/computers/images/excel-autosum.jpg caption="external image excel-autosum.jpg"]]** which is found on the Standard Toolbar and then press the Enter key. What displayed in your cell when you pressed the Auto Sum Key? Did this calculate the total?
 * 9) Now, we're going to add the totals to the remaining students by copying the formula in Step iv above to the remaining cells. To do this:
 * Select cell H6
 * Hold the mouse over the little square in the bottom right corner of the cell and drag downwards until all cells where you want the formula applied are highlighted
 * Release the mouse and the formula will copy into each cell highlighted changing the cell addresses to match the row it is on. Check the formula in the row of the last student in the class and see what's there.
 * 1) **SAVE YOUR WORK**