Ask an adult friend or family member to take you on a field trip to a local grocery store. What are you looking for? Maple syrup, of course!
Locate the syrup and count the various different types of syrups available. How are they similar? How do they differ? Choose one syrup to try at home.
You might also want to pick up some supplies to make pancakes or waffles. When you get home, cook up a hearty breakfast with maple syrup as the star! While you're making pancakes, observe and investigate changing states of matter!
Did you get it? Test your knowledge. Wonder Words drift sniff stack soak sticky treat recognize ordinary oxygen gallon consist suction peacefully consciousness unmistakable throughout production carbohydrate Take the Wonder Word Challenge. Join the Discussion. Gabe Nov 5, I have also read the following 47, , Nov 5, Apr 17, Dec 4, We hope you stay tuned to find out what our new Wonders will be!!! Rickey Berwick Jun 1, Madelyn Apr 12, Jun 2, Chas May 30, I think tommorows wonder will be about the moon.
Jun 1, Pretty close, Chas! What did you think of the astronaut one? Good question! We hope you find out from the article, Kendall! Apr 16, Thanks, lilly! What did you learn from this Wonder? Related Wonders for You to Explore Yet if you cut a tree a few weeks earlier or later, nothing happens. What is going on? During the winter, when trees are dormant, the stems store large amounts of starch, a polymer made of long chains of glucose, a simple sugar.
The starch is stored in living cells in the wood, called parenchyma. When nights are cold and days a bit warm, enzymes in the stem break down the long polymers into the simple sugar sucrose. Suddenly, the number of molecules in the parenchyma cells goes from a small number of starch polymers to a huge number of small sucrose molecules.
The sucrose creates an osmotic potential that causes water to flow into the parenchyma cells. This is the simple and familiar principle of osmosis. As water moves into the cells, the pressure inside the cells rises. Some of the sucrose is pumped out of the parenchyma cells into the dead xylem cells. In this case the positive pressure inside the maple tree is a result of pressure from warming, released gasses, osmotic pressure caused by sugar and other substances in the sap, as well as gravity on the sap higher up in the tree.
It must be understood that usually different parts of the tree respond at different times. After a cold night, when the sun rises and warms the southeast exposure, that portion of the tree will start to flow. Tapholes on other exposures may still be under negative pressure. As the sun moves around the tree these other tapholes will start to flow. Sap flow will continue as long as the pressure inside the tree is greater than the atmospheric pressure outside the tree.
Vacuum pumps on tubing systems show their greatest gain over gravity flow systems when tree pressures are low. This is because there is a small pressure differential between the internal tree pressure and the atmospheric pressure outside the tree.
The tree responds by continuing to flow at a rate usually associated with higher tree pressures. The period of sap flow can vary from just a few hours to a few days on end. Many environmental factors and tree metabolic factors affect the length of sap flow period and the amount of sap produced.
For strong sap flows to be repeated, a suitable temperature cycle above and below freezing must occur to allow strong positive sap pressure to develop. The sap flow ceases entirely when these temperature cycles cease to exist. Bumper sap years also depend on the growing season of the previous summer to store as much carbohydrates as possible in the form of starch.
These stored starch reserves convert to sucrose and are dissolved in the sap as spring approaches. The amount of sugar sucrose in the springtime sap depends on many factors including tree genetics, leaf mass, site conditions, amount of sun the previous growing season and overall tree health.
Proper tapping and sap collection methods will not be detrimental to a sugar maple tree. Many trees have been tapped every year for well over a hundred years. Spring: This is the time of the most activity when the syrup is being made and most of the harvest work is done. Most sugarhouses in Massachusetts are open to the public during the boiling season, and many have restaurants where you can have pancake breakfasts with freshly made maple syrup.
Because sap must be boiled immediately to make the best syrup, sugarmakers are often boiling late into the night, and occasionally around the clock. At the end of the season, everything must be absolutely clean and in good repair before it is stored for the next season.
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