The Science of a Kiss: Measurement, Mass, and Energy

The second lab we did in class was called, “The Science of a Kiss: Measurement, Mass and Energy.” The materials used for this lab were Hershey’s Kisses, a meter stick, scale, and a calculator. The class had to estimate how many Hershey’s Kisses were in a long jar and how many were in a smaller, but rounder jar. Our group guessed that the jars both held the same amount of Hershey Kisses. Then we used a meter stick to measure the mass of one Hershey’s Kiss. We had to drop the Hershey’s Kiss from a height of 0.1 meter, 0.5 meter, and 1 meter. After this we used the measurements and velocity to find the kinetic energy and potential energy. When we were done calculating these formulas it was announced that the small round jar actually contained more Hershey Kisses. I thought that this activity was a little bit confusing. I had trouble really understanding what the measurements meant and why I was using them for this activity. The directions were a little bit vague. Had I understood more and had better direction I think this would be a good activity for students to understand mass and measurement.