{"id":1230,"date":"2014-06-30T12:28:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T12:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2022-04-14T12:02:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T16:02:21","slug":"make-qr-code-mms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/make-qr-code-mms\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make a QR code out of M&#038;Ms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A while back, I was researching how to print a QR code on a cake, as you do, and stumbled across this mysterious video of a QR code made of M&amp;Ms:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jd5yzgELGy4\" width=\"392\" height=\"221\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The quality&#8217;s kind of poor and the provenance mysterious, so I set to wondering: is it really possible to make a QR code out of M&amp;Ms?<\/p>\n<p>With the students attending last week&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/middlegradescollaborative.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Middle Grades Institute<\/a>, I set about finding out.<\/p>\n<h2>How to make a QR code out of M&amp;MS<\/h2>\n<h2>Materials:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Plain M&amp;Ms (we discovered: roughly 1.5 pounds of M&amp;Ms works for 9 students, even taking into account uh, collateral loss\u00a0during construction)<\/li>\n<li>Rulers<\/li>\n<li>Chopsticks (for sanitary food-handling)<\/li>\n<li>Large white sheets of paper<\/li>\n<li>Printed QR codes, large enough so they take up most of an 8.5&#8243; x 11&#8243; sheet of paper<\/li>\n<li>At least 45 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Information to embed in the QR codes &#8212; I linked them to additional YouTube videos showing QR codes made out of <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/ryHKbPqXgE8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hard candy<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/MUvy4oYlv-o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">white mints on a blue background<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/9weUNipUuI0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Legos<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Method:<\/h2>\n<p>Show the mysterious M&amp;M video. Then break into groups of 3, take a giant sheet of white paper, a dish of M&amp;Ms and a ruler, and ask each team to duplicate the pattern of a different QR code with the M&amp;Ms.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note:<\/em> remove the yellow M&amp;Ms from the field of play. They will not scan dark enough to serve as &#8220;blocks&#8221;, but as one group figured out, you can use them as spacers.<\/p>\n<p>Instructions beyond that are optional. All three groups I worked with quickly determined that QR codes are made up of units, and each side is <em>n<\/em> units long. So with\u00a0M&amp;Ms as your units, you know each row will be <em>n<\/em>\u00a0M&amp;Ms long. And, as mentioned above, the yellow M&amp;Ms make great spacers to be removed at the end.<\/p>\n<h3>Not just any flat surface will do<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>I love it when a plan comes together <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/K0rmx1TdcH\">pic.twitter.com\/K0rmx1TdcH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tarrant Institute (@innovativeEd) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/innovativeEd\/statuses\/482580241916116992\">June 27, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Yes, we are building\u00a0on the floor. Classroom space was at a premium (read: not available), so we staked out a section of hallway and got to it. Reports from the testers indicated that tables would have been infinitely preferable, as in one case, a group had to get their M&amp;Ms to stay put on a ridge in the carpet. <\/p>\n<h2>Results<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Success &#8212; with strings attached<\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0 <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>If worked! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/innovativeEd\">@innovativeEd<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/stem?src=hash\">#stem<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mgi?src=hash\">#mgi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/vted?src=hash\">#vted<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mscareercamp?src=hash\">#mscareercamp<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/Qgf44G2dm1\">pic.twitter.com\/Qgf44G2dm1<\/a> \u2014 Dana Cummings (@dcummingsems) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dcummingsems\/statuses\/482586670206681088\">June 27, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Out of our three groups of testers, one was able to construct a functioning QR code, above. Although by &#8220;functioning&#8221; I mean that the code was scannable with the apps <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181203112910\/https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/scan-qr-code-barcode-reader\/id411206394?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20171019192607\/https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/redlaser-barcode-scanner-shopping\/id474902001?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RedLaser<\/a>, but not <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/qrafter-qr-code-barcode-reader\/id416098700?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">QRafter<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/qr-reader-for-iphone\/id368494609?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">QR Reader<\/a>. (Thank you to Essex Middle School educator\u00a0Dana Cummings for serving as the official judge and scanning authority!)<\/p>\n<p>One group ran out of time, and one group gave up after trying three different methods of assembly: line-by-line, coloring in squares underneath, and trying to put M&amp;Ms directly on top of the printed sample.<\/p>\n<p>Among the groups, different roles emerged during construction. In each group there was someone who enjoyed separating out all the yellow ones, someone who enjoyed reading out the squares (&#8220;3 black! 2 spaces! 1 black, 3 spaces!&#8221;) and someone who was handy with the ruler and detail-oriented enough to make very, very neat lines. In fact, when at first the finished QR code wouldn&#8217;t scan, the ruler-wielder took a brief moment to straighten two lines that had gone wonky, and that made all the difference.<\/p>\n<p>Also, while I was keen on using chopsticks for food-handling, I was the only one, and the chopsticks generally wound up being put into play as boundaries or used to make minute adjustments at the finish.<\/p>\n<h2>For our next trick&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>At about the 45-minute mark, focus became our popular but elusive friend who chose to sit elsewhere, leading to a rash of airborne M&amp;Ms (note to self: prepare M&amp;M-physics-velocity lesson plan), M&amp;Ms repurposed into flower and house patterns, and one threat\u00a0to play Godzilla, stomping through the downtown candy area. <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/eDCCKaD5sqU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">These folks took a different tack with wine-gums<\/a>, using a stenciled, barely visible template under their paper, which might speed things up, but would also have taken a lot of the fun out of the activity.<\/p>\n<p>And my testers did assure me they enjoyed themselves mightily. Although, they commented, next time they want to try it with Skittles.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/instagram.com\/p\/pweV0pv5FH\/embed\/\" width=\"306\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A while back, I was researching how to print a QR code on a cake, as you do, and stumbled across this mysterious video of a QR code made of M&amp;Ms:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[17,66],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-augmented-reality-ideas-for-educators","tag-augmented-reality","tag-qr-codes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31264,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/31264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}