← Back to course
Cells and Systems 6-8 / Week 11 / Wednesday
3/6
Week 11 · Making More

Wednesday

Windowsill Lab: A flower and a flying seed
// Structures and behaviors that help life continue
⏱ about 20 min

Wednesday: Windowsill Lab: A Flower and a Flying Seed

Rocket stands on a kitchen stool holding two paper shapes high above the Windowsill. "Drop test!" he announces.

"Predict first," Raven says. "One is a plain square. One has a wing. Which lands farther from the stool?"

"The wing," Rocket says. "Like a maple seed." He lets go. The square plops straight down. The winged one spins and drifts.

Raven measures with the ruler. "Forty centimeters. What do you notice about how it fell?"

"It spun," Rocket says. "Spinning kept it up longer, and the air carried it."

Nova hovers beside the flower in its cup. "Now the lens," she says. "The flower has a secret ring to find."

Your mission

Today you do two things. First, you examine a real flower and record its parts. Second, you build and test a paper seed model.

A model is a stand-in for the real thing. Your paper seed is not a maple seed, but it can show how a wing changes a fall.

  • One flower from your own garden or from a bunch at home, in a cup of water
  • A hand lens or phone camera zoom
  • Two squares of paper, about 8 centimeters on each side
  • A paper clip and a pair of scissors (grown-up handles the cutting)
  • A ruler and a kitchen timer or phone timer
  • Your Windowsill Log and a pencil
Safety first
A grown-up does any cutting. The scissors stay on the table when not in use.
Look at the flower; do not sniff it, and do not touch your face. Wash your hands after handling it.
Drop the paper seeds from a stool only if a grown-up is steadying it. A chair seat or a tabletop is fine.
Nothing in this lab goes in your mouth.
  1. Part 1: Look at the flower with the hand lens. Find the green sepals, the petals, the anthers and the stigma.
  2. Count the petals and the anthers. Touch the stigma lightly with a clean fingertip: is it sticky? Record all three.
  3. Part 2: Keep one paper square plain. On the other, have a grown-up cut a slit halfway down the middle.
  4. Fold the two flaps outward to make wings. Slide a paper clip onto the uncut end for a seed weight.
  5. Hold both shapes at the same height, about 1 meter. Drop them together. Time how long each takes to land.
  6. Measure how far from the drop point each one landed. Repeat three times and record every trial.
  7. Try a change: twist the wings, or remove the paper clip. Predict first, then test.
TrialPlain square: time (s)Plain square: distance (cm)Winged seed: time (s)Winged seed: distance (cm)
1
2
3
My change
PREDICT BEFORE YOU DROP
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Which paper shape will stay in the air longer?
Which real seed does your winged paper model stand for?

Reading the result

Wind-dispersed fruit are lightweight and may have wing-like parts that allow them to be carried by the wind. Your winged paper probably fell slower and farther.

A longer fall gives moving air more time to push the seed sideways. That is how a seed ends up far from the parent plant.

Your flower count is data too. The number of sepals and petals varies between kinds of plants, so counting helps tell them apart.

A sticky stigma holds pollen that lands on it. That is a structure that raises the chance pollen stays where it is needed.

If your plain square won a trial, that is still data. Air in a room is never perfectly still. Record it and think about why.

What the lab showsTrue or false?
A wing-like part helps a light seed stay in the air longer.?
The plain square is a model of a wind-dispersed seed.?
A sticky stigma helps hold pollen that lands on it.?
A seed that lands far from its parent has less competition for light and space.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEEach structure you tested raises a chance: of traveling, of catching pollen, of growing.
How many trials did you drop both shapes together before making a change? Type a number.
WHY THIS EXERCISERepeating a test is how scientists tell a real pattern from a lucky drop.
Sketch your winged paper seed and show the path it took as it fell. Draw the plain square's path beside it.

Careful testing. Tomorrow you read a table that matches pollinators to the flowers built for them.

← Tuesday