Have Seeds Will Travel

Challenge
Since it is now officially spring, the flora will start blooming and then before you know it, be ready to disperse their seeds. Flora depends and relies on their seeds to help with expansion and growth into different areas. Some plants have structures that allow their seeds to become airborne and soar long distances. What do you think these seeds look like? How far do you think the seeds can travel? How will you test it out? Enter this month’s challenge. You and your group need to design a wind dispersed seed structure to carry a single seed the farthest distance possible. The seed you will be carrying is a lima bean.

Your seed structure does have some criteria and constraints. You can only use a single piece of paper of your choice. The seed must stay attached to the structure. If the seed falls out during flight, the distance will be calculated as zero. You can test your structure during the build process with the fan. For the final test, you will have three trials, measure each distance, and average them together for your final distance.

Materials

• fan
• lima bean seeds
• computer paper
• construction paper
• card stock paper
• scissors
• tape measures

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the different paper types to see how durable and heavy they are. Also, let students handle the lima beans to get a sense of their mass.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design. Students may start fresh with a new piece of paper if they would like to change their design, but you may want to limit how many pieces of paper they can do this with.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials (tape, glue, string), take away certain materials, show them different wind dispersed seeds from nature, make something without a seed or with more seeds. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the height and distance students are dropping their seeds in front or the fan. For example, tape a ruler or pole to the back of the fan then an index card to the top of the ruler or pole jutting out it front of the fan. Students then would drop their dispersal structure with the bottom touching the edge of the card.
5. Allow students to build and experiment with their designs and perform their final three trials. Students should average the three trials together.  If possible, discuss the outcomes, compare and contrast structures based upon distance, relate to the real world, and share improvements to be made, and allow students to improve their seed dispersal structure.
6. Connect to science by discussing gravity, weight, mass, structure and function of organisms, growth, reproduction.
7. Connect to ELA by reading Travelling Seeds by Rebecca Bielawski, Who Will Plant a Tree by Jerry Pallotta, or Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by JoAnn Early Macken, to explore concepts related to how seeds are dispersed in nature.