Tens of thousands of years before there were movies, there was popcorn! In fact, archaeologists have found 80,000-year-old corn pollen in Mexico that is almost exactly the same as modern popcorn pollen, which leads researchers to believe that the people of ancient Mexico had popcorn!
Native Americans brought a bag of popped corn to the first Thanksgiving. After learning about popcorn, the Pilgrims began enjoying popped corn as a breakfast cereal served with cream or milk!
Today the average American eats nearly 70 quarts of popcorn a year. Not only do we Americans love to eat popcorn, we love to grow popcorn. Most of the world now gets its popcorn from Nebraska and Indiana.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
If you have some popcorn kernels around your house, you have the perfect ingredients for some fun STEAM activities for your kids. The Lemon Lime Adventures Popcorn STEM activity is simple, educational and tasty! You will need popcorn kernels, brown paper sacks, vegetable oil and 4 mason jars or small containers. The object of this experiment is to determine if how the kernels are treated before putting them in the microwave would change how well they popped. Such an easy and educational experiment! Click here to get the directions.
Popcorn Math and Science Experiments
To quote the creator of this Discover. Learn. Connect blog, “Seriously, no matter how much they say, “I don’t like math”, or “Science is boring”, no kid can resist popcorn!” They will have so much fun, they won’t even know they’re doing math and science. This activity involves both math and science. The math part comes in the counting out of two groups of 100 popcorn kernels each. You will pop 1 group of 100 and put the other 100 kernels in one of the jars. After popping the second group, put the popped corn in the other jar. Now comes the science part – the same amount of kernels, but when you pop them, they expand and take up more space. Why? How? All these questions can lead to conversations about matter and volume and beyond! Click here to visit this great website for all the details.
Dancing Corn
Making corn dance is very easy, but so much fun to watch! All you need is some popcorn kernels, baking soda, white vinegar and a clear glass or jar. Put 1 cup of kernels in the jar and pour in about 2 cups of the vinegar. Then slowly start pouring in about ¼ cup of baking soda, and wait for the dance party to begin! Click here to see pictures and get the directions.
I know you and your kids will enjoy not only eating popcorn, but also experimenting and learning with popcorn.
