Objectives
There are several key science concepts that students will explore through the phenomenon of making popcorn. At the simplest level, they will discover that it is the structure and the percentage of water in the kernel of popcorn which allows the pressure of the water vapor to build until the hull bursts. Students will connect Gay-Lussac’s Law, which describes the relationship between pressure and temperature, given a constant volume of a gas to the pressure change inside the kernel. This change of state of the water is due to the change in the arrangement and movement of the molecules as a result of having energy added in the form of heat. Furthermore, there are different ways for electrical energy to be converted to heat energy which in turn affects how efficiently corn pops. On a more general level, students will discover that matter has different properties depending on whether it is in a solid, liquid, or gas phase. They will connect changes of temperature with the changing motion of molecules and how that relates to density. Lastly, they will see how the molecular structure of a substance determines its properties.
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