Games from Mexico ‘remain popular’
Mexican games have been popular amongst children everywhere for decades and now a revival of some has been seen in mid-America.
Children young and old have played with Mexican jumping beans for more than 60 years, the South East Missourian reports. The game involves simple materials like beans and a heat lamp.
Jason Lindsey, a science outreach educator with Hooked on Science, enjoys teaching children the wonders of science through such Hispanic-origin games.
He explained that the beans jump when put under the heat lamp because there is a tiny caterpillar larva inside each seed pod.
According to the science behind the task, when the temperature gets too hot on the beans, the caterpillar larva inside each one snaps the body and makes the seed pod jump.
The larvae jump as a survival measure in order to protect themselves from heat.
A Mexican jumping bean is an occurrence native to Mexico, where it is known as Frijoles saltarines.
