(And for that title, you can blame a long lineage of not-so-funny punners.)
I promised to share what we were up to with our
kernel counting, and here it is . . .
Science, of course!
After studying matter and reading
The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola, we were inspired to investigate a hypothesis. "
Will popcorn pop more if we soak the kernels in water?" Working together as a class (and guided by a form I adapted from something the district distributed),
the children designed an experiment to help us find out.
Experienced scientists, the children did some insightful scientific thinking in the process of planning the experiment. Based on what they know about matter, they proposed a hypothesis, "
The more water we add, the more kernels will pop" (although a few skeptical young scientists argued that too much water would make the kernels soggy and prevent them from popping).
"We were experimenting popcorn and how will it pop yesterday. We were wondering if the popcorn will pop better with water in the bag. The heat will heat the water which will heat the kernels and make them pop. I think the bag with fewer unpopped kernels is the one that is half full of water." GW, 3rd grade
Procedure
They brainstormed the aspects of the experiment that we would need to hold constant. "
We will need to use the same number of kernels each time." "
We should use all the same brand of popcorn." "
From the same bag, too!" "
We should use the same machine to pop them."
Knowing that scientists measure things, the children made a list of what would need to be measured: "
Count the starting kernels." Thinking it was quite a lot, the children decided upon 200 kernels (and were then surprised by how few that seemed when they were counted out and placed in the bag). "
Count the unpopped kernels at the end." "
Measure how much water we add." To each of two bags of 200 kernels, we added 60 milliliters of water, which meant they were swimming in water. Since there was some disagreement about our hypothesis that more water was better, we decided to test a Goldilocks mid-point and added a paper towel soaked in 10 milliliters of water to each of two bags of 200 kernels. "
Measure how long we pop the popcorn." We popped each group of kernels for 4 minutes.
They also considered possible unintended variables. "
What if the machine gets hotter, the longer it's on? That could change our results." The children proposed multiple trials to cancel out any extra heating that took place over time.
"We are doing a science experiment with popcorn. Would more popcorn pop in water or no water? We read a book about popcorn. The procedure is first we count to 200 kernels. Then we leave some with and without water. We let them sit over night. We pop them and see how many popped in water and without. I think that the less water we put, the more popcorn will pop." KK, first grade
Observations:
200 dry kernels
 |
| nice and fluffy |
200 kernels soaked overnight in 60 ml of water
 |
| very few popped kernels |
200 kernels with damp (10 ml water) paper towel
 |
| oddly shriveled |
Data collection:
Of course, we made a chart to organize our data.
Our conclusions:
Don't soak or even dampen your popcorn. Kernels popped much better when they were not exposed to moisture. Dampened popcorn popped very loudly with much flying-into-the-air drama but was shriveled and weird, rather than puffed up and delicious, with lots of unpopped kernels. The soaked kernels were even more of a failure.
In related science news, when I reported our popcorn experiment results, a scientist friend shared that his recent experimentation with "spitcorn" (I know. "
Eewww!" Yep,
scientists wonder about things . . .) yielded similarly disappointing results. Hmm. Perhaps there is some optimal moisture content? This may require further investigation (with popcorn and moisture--
not necessarily "spitcorn"). Science Fair project, anyone?
November is the perfect time to experiment with popcorn--
a "New World" food. A certain second grade boy and I were particularly enthralled with the idea of throwing a handful of kernels into a campfire or using a stick to hold an entire ear of popping corn over the flames of a fire. There is also evidence that some groups popped popcorn in clay pots filled with hot sand. The popped kernels popped to the top where they could be easily plucked out and eaten. Popcorn found in archaeological sites in South America has been so well preserved that it was possible to pop it over 1000 years later!
There's a Book for That!
The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola
More About Popcorn
http://www.popcorn.org
microwave popcorn cob
We transform a sunny corner of our classroom into a printing station (covered in butcher paper), with a brayer, ink (we use Speedball water-soluble block printing ink), a plate on which to roll the ink onto the brayer (cut from a sheet of plexiglass that was randomly left in my classroom one year by district repairmen), colored construction paper cut and folded for cards, and a clothesline drying area on the bulletin board. 
