Magical Dancing Corn

This corn will hop up and down repeatedly in your container for over an hour.  It’s so much fun to watch (mesmerizing would be the best word to describe it) and it creates a great opportunity to talk about gases, liquids, and solids with your child.

YOU WILL NEED:

  • a clear glass container
  • popping corn
  • 2 1/2 – 3 cups of water
  • 2 Tbsp. of baking soda
  • 6 Tbsp. of white vinegar
  • food colouring (optional)

That’s it!  I told you you probably had it in your kitchen already.

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1.  Fill your jar with water and add a couple drops of food colouring.
  2.  Add your baking soda and stir well until it is all dissolved.
  3.  Add a small handful of popping corn kernels.
  4.  Add the vinegar and watch the corn start to hop up and down!

Basically the science behind the activity is that when the baking soda and vinegar combine, they react to form carbon dioxide (CO2) gas.  The gas forms bubbles in the water which circle around the corn kernels.  The bubbles lift the kernels up to the surface and when they get there they pop and the kernels sink again.

The “hopping” continues until the vinegar and baking soda have finished reacting.  For us, it lasted over an hour!