Fun with Packing Peanuts!

Hey monkeys, Alvin here! Do you guys like science and being green? Well this experiment is just for you! Recently, my science class did this experiment and I thought all the Monkeys at MiniMonos would enjoy it.
Here is what you will need:

• Glass or Beaker filled with water
• Styrofoam Packing Peanut
• Corn-Starch-Based packing peanut

Instructions:
Start by putting the styrofoam packing peanut into the glass of water, and observe what happens. Nothing happens! If you didn't know, styrofoam is non-bio-degradable, which means it will never break down in landfills! And each year, 25 Billion styrofoam cups get thrown away each year!
Next, put the corn-starch packing peanuts into the water and observe what happens. The packing peanut dissolves in the water! This means that the corn-starch packing peanuts are bio-degradable, which is very good for the environment. It is very fun to do because it becomes very squishy before dissolving!
Our teacher went on to tell us that companies prefer using the styrofoam packing peanuts because it protects packages better, even though they are bad for the environment. But did you know that throwing away these bio-degradable peanuts is green too? After the first good rain, the packing peanuts will dissolve at the landfill!
Lastly, to conclude our lesson, our teacher told us to eat the bio-degradable packing peanut! He said that nothing harmful would happen, so I ate it! It didn't taste good but it was really cool.
If you like arts and crafts, then here is something fun you can do! Just get a glass of water, and some of the corn-starch packing peanuts. Simply dip your finger in the water and touch the packing peanut to make it sticky (This is what happens before dissolving). Then, attach another peanut onto the already sticky peanut, and let your imagination run wild! You can make animals, cars, buildings, etc!

These two activities are a lot more fun than throwing them away, right? For the dissolving in water, we practiced Reducing, and for the arts and crafts, we Reused! Have fun monkeys!
-- Alvin