JUNIOR: Seeds
Curated by Kierden Martin
It all starts with a seed. In this package, students look at the ways seeds have been engineered by nature to travel, dive into inquiry questions, and make seed bombs. Additional resources offer a variety of directions to take learning about seeds to deeper levels.
“A seed neither fears light nor darkness, but uses both to grow.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo
Land Art
DIY Seed Bombs
In this activity, students take on the role of dispersing seeds by creating their own seed bombs to plant. These make great gifts as well and can be pressed into shapes of the students’ choosing.
This is a great opportunity to find out what is native to your area and what may benefit pollinators there! It also opens a discussion about sustainability by reusing old materials like scrap paper.
Outdoor Exploration
Minds On! Test Out Seed Flyers (~10 min)
In this activity, students observe, identify, and model the various ways plants disperse their seeds. The lesson has connections to science, technology, and math, with an engaging engineering challenge where students design a seed that could travel long distances.
If you are engaged in online learning right now, students can still collaborate in groups to plan and test their designs. It might only mean that one student has their hands on the materials but everyone can watch and problem-solve together.
If you can, GO OUTSIDE!
What Did You Learn?
What were the main takeaways?
What interested you the most?
What is your role in your environment? How does that change now that you have created and can plant your seed bombs? What is your role as a steward of the earth?
Taking it to the next level… some research questions to explore.
Resources
Language Extension: Have students write a journal response to the above discussion questions on their role in the environment around them. They could also write an adventure story from the perspective of the seed as it travels from its mother plant to where it starts to grow.
Examples of seed dispersal:
Seed Aviation, Travelling, The Private Life Of Plants BBC Two (video)
Seed Dispersal by Explosion (video)
How do seeds get around?! (in MACRO!) | Maddie Moate(video)
What would happen in a human-made or natural disaster (or zombie apocalypse)? Take a look at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault here
SEED: The Untold Story documentary has a discussion guide including sections on:
GMOs,
Biodiversity (part one),
Indigenous and global connections to seed diversity (e.g., part one, page 3) and seed saving (e.g., part two, page 3),
Corporate control of seeds,
History connections to seed dispersal and breeding (part three, pages 3-8)
Cool Science: Physicists discovered a new form of flight thanks to dandelion seeds
STEM activity guide from Project Learning Tree: STEM: HAVE SEEDS, WILL TRAVEL
Tell the world what you found! Take a video of your project and have it featured on YouTube! Follow the instructions below to submit it to My Kitchen Science Show where it will be posted.
Use this format to title your file: Wintergreen LABB 2021 Seed STEM Activity [any other info: school, group name, etc.]