Answers—RonaldWantsToKnow:kernel,natives,seed,heat,explode,butter

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A FREE ICE CREAM CONEUnscramble the words and bring in your answers for

Word of the Weekpreserve — to keep alive or inexistence; make lasting

Did You Know?• Americans consume some 16 bil-lion quarts of this whole grain,good-for-you treat. That’s 51 quartsper man, woman and child.• Compared to most snack foods,popcorn is low in calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 31 calo-ries per cup. Oil-popped is only 55per cup.• Popcorn is a type of maize (orcorn), a member of the grass family,and is scientifically known as Zeamays everta.• Of the six types of maize/corn —pod, sweet, flour, dent, flint andpopcorn — only popcorn pops.• Popcorn is a whole grain. It ismade up of three components: thegerm, endosperm and pericarp(also know as the hull).• Popcorn needs between 13.5-14percent moisture to pop.• Popcorn differs from other types ofmaize/corn in that is has a thickerpericarp/hull. The hull allows pres-sure from the heated water to buildand eventually bursts open. Theinside starch becomes gelatinouswhile being heated; when the hullbursts, the gelatinized starch spillsout and cools, giving it its familiarpopcorn shape.

From yournewspaper, clipseveral adver-tisements for basicgoods. Go to thenewspaper officeor library to lookup back issues for three, fiveand 10 years. What has theinflation rate been for theseproducts?

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Brown Bag Microwave Popcorn

Tens of thousands of years before therewere movies, there was popcorn.

Archaeologists have found 80,000-year-old corn pollen below Mexico City. Becausethis pollen is almost exactly the same asmodern popcorn pollen, researchers believethat "cave people" most likely had popcorn.

Popcorn probably grew first in Mexico,though it also was used in China and Indiahundreds of years before Columbus reachedthe Americas.

The oldest popcorn ever found was dis-covered in the "Bat Cave" of central NewMexico. It is thought to be about 5,600 yearsold. In tombs in Peru, archaeologists foundancient kernels of popcorn that are so wellpreserved that they can still pop.

Sometimes, conditions can preserveancient popcorn so perfectly that it still looksfluffy and white when the dust is blown off ofit. In a cave in southern Utah, researchersfound surprisingly fresh-looking 1,000-year-old popcorn.

Popcorn was probably an important partof life in the ancient Americas. On a 1,700-year-old painted funeral urn found in Mexico,a corn god is shown wearing a headdress ofpopcorn. Decorated popcorn poppers fromaround the same time have been found inPeru.

Europeans learned about popcorn fromNative Americans. When Cortes invadedMexico, and when Columbus arrived in theWest Indies, each saw natives eating pop-corn, as well as using it in necklaces andheaddresses.

Native Americans brought a bag ofpopped corn to the first Thanksgiving. Acommon way to eat popcorn at that timewas to hold an oiled ear on a stick over thefire, then chew the popped kernels off it.Natives throughout the Americas also madea popcorn beer. Some made popcorn soup.

After learning about the fluffy food,colonists began enjoying the first puffedbreakfast cereal — a bowl of popcorn,served with cream or milk.

Popcorn was very popular in the UnitedStates from the late 19th century through themiddle of the 20th century. It was available inparks, from street vendors and near the-aters.

During World War II, when sugar wasrationed, Americans changed their snackinghabits — they ate three times as much pop-corn as they had before. Perhaps the favoriteplace to eat popcorn was at the movies.When television took off in the 1950s, pop-corn sales dropped for a while.

Today, the average American eats nearly70 quarts of popcorn a year. But the UnitedStates isn't just a land of popcorn lovers—it'salso the land of popcorn. Most of the worldnow gets its popcorn from Nebraska andIndiana.

A popcorn kernel is actually a seed. Likeother seeds, inside it has a tiny plant embryo(a life form in its earliest phase). The embryois surrounded by soft, starchy material thatwould give the embryo energy for growinginto a plant. A hard, glossy shell protects theoutside of the seed.

The soft, starchy material holds somewater. When the kernel is heated to a highheat (400 degrees F), the water inside thekernel turns into steam. The pressure fromthe steam causes the kernel to explode. Thesoft starch inside bursts out at about 40times its original size, turning the kernelinside out. This creates the fluffy white areaof a popped kernel.

The ideal popcorn kernel contains about14 percent moisture. If the popcorn is muchdrier, it will not pop. Popcorn kernels shouldbe kept in a tightly sealed jar so that they willnot dry out.

Fun Popcorn Facts

Popcorn

• Most U.S. popcorn is grown in theMidwest, primarily in Indiana, Nebraska,Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.• Many people believe the acres of cornthey see in the Midwest during growingseason could be picked and eaten for din-ner, or dried and popped. In fact, thoseacres are typically field corn, which is usedlargely for livestock feed, and differs fromboth sweet corn and popcorn.• The peak period for popcorn sales forhome consumption is in the fall.• Most popcorn comes in two basic shapes

when it's popped: snowflake and mush-room. Snowflake is used in movie theatersand ballparks because it looks and popsbigger. Mushroom is used for candy confec-tions because it doesn't crumble.• Popping popcorn is one of the No. 1 usesfor microwave ovens. Most microwaveovens have a "popcorn" control button.• "Popability" is popcorn lingo that refers tothe percentage of kernels that pop.• There is no such thing as “hull-less” pop-corn. All popcorn needs a hull in order topop. Some varieties of popcorn have been

bred so the hull shatters upon popping,making it appear to be hull-less.• How high popcorn kernels can pop? Up to3 feet in the air.• The world’s largest popcorn ball was cre-ated by volunteers in Sac City, Iowa inFebruary 2009. It weighed 5,000 pounds,stood more than 8 ft. tall, and measured28.8 feet in circumference.• If you made a trail of popcorn from NewYork City to Los Angeles, you would needmore than 352,028,160 popped kernels!

1. Put 1/4 cup popcorn in abrown paper bag. Fold top over afew times and tape it.2. Place in microwave folded side

upfor 2 to 3 minutes or until thereis 5 seconds between pops.3. Eat plain or add flavors (suchas salt, butter, sugar, etc.)

ValentineCard Challenge

Hey Elementary Schools!Have your class make cards out of materials (preferablyreused items) to give to patients at Dayton Children’sMedical Center and area nursing homes. Use your creativ-ity to give someone a great Valentine’s Day Card. Make

this a class project and the classwith the most cards made wins

a party sponsored by ScottFamily McDonalds®! Theclass instructor wins a prize,too! Send your cards by Feb

10, 2013 to:Dana Wolfe,Newspapers in

Education,224 S. Market St.,

Troy, OH 45373.