Cranberries are an tasty fruit that can be found growing wild in New England or in your local grocery store! But did you know they have some amazing properties that make for great science lessons? In this post we share some fun, hands-on lessons aimed at preschoolers, but great for kids of all ages, that explain the science behind cranberries!

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Last week Caden some play with cranberries lead to questions about how the berries grow and what you can do with them. Here is a great video on how cranberries are harvested. I explained that cranberries are used to make cranberry sauce and Caden wanted to make some right away.

It was really fascinating to watch the berries boil up and pop open releasing the juices. This week I decided to we should explore more about why the berries popped open.

First we cut open a cranberry and observed the tiny seeds and air pockets. Then I tried to explain how the air inside the berries expand when they are heated and that’s why they pop open. I’m not sure how much Caden understood but I demonstrated with the ivory soap microwave experiment.

What do cranberries and ivory soap have in common? They are both filled with air bubbles that expand when heated. This is why ivory soap foams up when heated in the microwave!

Caden had a blast watching the ivory soap expand in the microwave! It was so cool to watch! Check out how to do this at Happy Hooligans!

Here is what it looked like after about 2 minutes in the microwave!

We also experimented with whether the cranberries will sink or float in a glass of water. And then we checked out how craisins dance around in carbonated drinks.