Pumpkin Science

Art by shirt.woot derby contestant, noisdois

Did you know...

• In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
  
  
• Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
  
  
• Pumpkin chunking is a competitive activity in which teams build various mechanical devices designed to throw a pumpkin as far as possible.
  
  
• The largest pumpkin ever grown was 1,689 pounds. It was grown by Joe Jutras of North Scituate, Rhode Island and weighed at the Topsfield Fair GPC weigh-off in Topsfield, MA on September 29, 2007.

Yes...the simple pumpkin. For most of the year, this simple fruit is largely ignored. However, every October, the unassuming pumpkin makes its way into the limelight! It takes its rightful place on porches, tables, and windowsills. Some might say that Halloween is the holiday of the pumpkin! Whatever your opinion, I am sure you agree...the pumpkin is a fantastic part of any Halloween celebration. More important, the pumpkin offers many opportunities to explore science with your children. Below are a couple of my favorite activities.

Estimating Pumpkin Seeds
It is rumored that if you multiply the number of fruiting sections in a field pumpkin (C. pepo variety) by 16 it is the number of seeds in the pumpkin, give or take 10 or so. Guessing the number of seeds in the pumpkin is a great activity to explore with your children.

Planting Pumpkin Seeds
After collecting and counting the pumpkin seeds, there are plenty of things to do with them. For example, you can grow pumpkin plants! eHow has a nice set of instructions for growing pumpkins. You can find them here.

Roasting Pumpkin Seeds
Many children have carved pumpkins. In the carving process, the seeds of the pumpkin are scooped out and discarded. Such a waste! Just think what your children will say when you explain to them that the seeds of the pumpkin can be roasted and eaten! You can find instructions for roasting pumpkin seeds here.

Glowing Pumpkins
Martha Stewart has created a great pumpkin craft project that incorporates some great science. She call them Glow-in-the-Dark Funkins and they are pretty simple to make. You can find the instructions for the project here.

Self Carving Pumpkins
Of course, if you want to really do something special with your pumpkins, you can visit Steve Spangler Science for his demonstration of the self carving pumpkin. You probably won't have the materials needed for to do the demonstation yourself, but you may want to show your kids what is possible with a pumpkin and a little science! Check out the self-carving pumpkin here. You may also want to read about some of of Steve's other favorite Halloween experiements here.