Science Fair

Tuesday was the Homeschool Science Fair hosted by our local children's librarian (who is AWESOME!). Ellie worked with her friend, Sam (she's a girl, Sam is her nickname), and brother Wyatt. Wyatt wanted to do more, but some things Ellie didn't want him to help with (and Sam apparently couldn't sleep for worry that he would ruin the graphs). He did help by entertaining Sam's little bro's and sis. Wyatt also helped count kernels, and Ellie let him help just a little with the graphs.

The kids did a project on testing how well different popcorn poppers popped popcorn. Hey! That would make a pretty good tongue twister. How many times can you say that fast?

Okay, back to the serious science project. They compared Orville Reddenbacher microwave popcorn with Orville Reddenbacher kernels in a microwave air popper, a regular air popper and a kettle cooker. They compared how many kernels were unpopped out of 500 (that was the constant from counting all the popped and unpopped kernels in the microwave bag). Then they measured fluffiness by putting each batch in the same bowel and then measuring it with a ruler. And then the not so scientific test of taste. The air popper was the fluffiest, but the kettle cooker popped the most kernels and was the tastiest by the testers (kettle corn has sugar on it...was there really a contest in taste?).

The votes at the contest were by penny's in a jar (later donated to charity). The Popcorn Project (as the kids named the science project) also included samples of the two winners. Guess who won the science fair? And made a mess in the library?