It may be too early in the spring to think about seeds and ways to show seed dispersal. In fact, the weather may not be cooperating at all! Is it rainy during April where you live? I can still remember the baseball season when my son was little and the month of April was always so rainy. We had make-up games every week due to rain and mud.
Even with too much rain, we still enjoy our May flowers that bloom. This is what prompted me to think about using seeds and flowers in STEM class and this first challenge we tried was the best ever! Take a peek!
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Here’s the story of this challenge!
I drew a fabulous anchor chart showing the methods of seed dispersal and we had a great discussion including ideas of how we could build something for each method. Then I passed out the assignment cards. Each group had a different way to show seed dispersal. They had some decisions to make! How would they build a model and what materials would they need?
Here are some of their models! Are you ready? These are FABULOUS!
Dispersal by Animals
Basically, animals move seeds by eating the fruit of a plant and then expelling the seeds. They might also move seeds by taking the seeds back to the homes.
Kids really enjoyed thinking about this one- mostly because they like to say the word ‘poop’! This bird has consumed fruit and will later expel the seeds in its dropppings.
Dispersal by Attaching
Attachment is the dispersal method that involves plant parts clinging to an animal. This one has an interesting story that involves the invention of velcro! Think about it! The group in the photo made a turkey! They even included the turkey’s wattle with a piece of red yarn. Their seeds are clinging to the turkey ‘feathers’.
That rough glove made a perfect turkey body!
Water Dispersal
Did you know that most seeds float? So, what would you build to show this dispersal method? Most of my groups built a form of a boat that carried the seeds away. The one in the photo looks fabulous, but it was made entirely of cotton balls so it sunk immediately!
That is a perfect way to learn!
Carried Away by the Wind
Kids loved this one! Most groups hoped they would be assigned this dispersal method or the last one! Some form of a parachute was what the teams built. And the parachute dispersed their seeds.
I think they loved this method because they could stand on the tables to drop their parachutes!
How About Gravity?
Gravity is a form of dispersal but generally results in dropping the seeds right near the parent plant. This is really not what you want to happen. You want those seeds to travel away. The team in the photo made a cherry by wrapping red yarn around the seeds and adding a green straw as the stem. They cut that red yarn to show the cherry drop to the ground.
And our very favorite- EXPLODING!
This dispersal method was, by far, the one all the kids wanted. They just loved thinking about placing seeds inside a balloon and then popping the balloon to create the exploding and seed dispersal.
We used a push pin to pop our balloons!
Y’all, we had the best time with this challenge! The kids learned so much about seed dispersal and their models were precious! Click on any of the image below to see the details in my store!
