To Learn What Pumpkins Can Teach Us, Ask Mrs. Moyer’s Second Graders

For their recent science lessons, Laura Moyer’s second-grade class in Lincoln Avenue Elementary School learned about the states of matter by exploring, appropriately, pumpkins!

“This past week,” Mrs. Moyer explained, “we used pumpkins to investigate and learn more about matter. We spent some time completing a pumpkin investigation booklet where we made observations about the size, color, and texture.  We also measured the pumpkins’ height, weight, and circumference. We determined whether our pumpkins were able to sink or float.  We also read the book in class called How Many Seed In a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas.  Like the story, we used three different-sized pumpkins to determine how many seeds are in a pumpkin.  The children each counted out a share of one of the pumpkins’ seeds.  We learned that the more lines a pumpkin has on the outside, the more seeds it has on the inside.  Each line on a pumpkin is another row of seeds.  Our big pumpkin had 36 lines with 550 seeds.  Our medium pumpkin had 30 lines with 476 seeds.  Our small pumpkin had 28 lines with 424 seeds.  What a great week we had and what a fun way to learn about matter!”