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THE PHYSICAL EDITION

Seeds and Rides

A prickly passenger catches on Vince’s bag. On his walk, he follows winged maple fruits and fluffy dandelion travellers, then discovers who has ridden all the way home.

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Explore the science

Seeds can move with an outside carrier.Pages 1–2

Vince’s bag brushes dry burdock heads. One brown burr catches near the bag’s seam. A burdock burr carries several fruits with seeds inside. Its bracts have hooked tips that can catch fibres or fur.

Ask together: What caught on Vince’s bag?

Shape and contact explain attachment.Pages 3–4

A closer view shows curved hook tips catching loops in the cream fabric. The burr is held by hooks caught in the cloth, not by glue. How well it catches depends on both surfaces.

Ask together: Where do the hooks meet the cloth?

Different structures travel in different ways.Pages 5–6

The burr stays on the moving bag. Ahead, one winged maple fruit falls near a tree. Vince carries the bag and its attached passenger. The separate winged fruit turns while it falls through air.

Ask together: Which traveller is Vince carrying?

A released winged fruit can spin as it descends.Pages 7–8

Vince releases one mature maple fruit. It is lower than his open fingers and turning. A maple samara has a wing and a thick seed-bearing end. Its shape interacts with air during descent; a short drop may not show a clear spin.

Ask together: Where is the fruit after Vince lets go?

The tuft, stalk and seed-bearing fruit stay connected.Pages 9–10

An adult holds a complete dandelion unit while Vince looks. A thin stalk joins its tiny brown fruit to white bristles. The object often called a dandelion seed is a fruit containing a seed. Its tuft of bristles is called the pappus.

Ask together: What hangs below the fluffy top?

Moving air can carry a tufted fruit.Pages 11–12

Vince blows gently toward a rooted dandelion head. Some complete units travel sideways; others remain attached. The bristles help slow falling, allowing moving air to carry the fruit. Dryness, maturity and the air affect what happens.

Ask together: What travels with each fluffy top?

A journey ends when a traveller comes to rest.Pages 13–14

One complete dandelion unit rests beside a yellow boot, and another rests on the path. Seeds and fruits can land in different places. A landing does not establish that a seed will grow there.

Ask together: Where did these two travellers land?

An attached passenger moves with its carrier.Pages 15–16

At the cottage, the same burr is still caught on the bag. An adult is ready to remove it. The burr arrived because Vince carried the bag. Adults should identify and remove plant hitchhikers appropriately and avoid spreading unfamiliar or invasive plants.

Ask together: Who carried this passenger home?

Sources and evidence

  1. A mature burdock burr can catch on fibrous fabric with hooks and be carried with the fabric.

    Manitoba Agriculture: Common Burdock

    Latter (1941), A Factor in the Dispersal of Burdock

    Attachment depends on the hooks and the material they meet.

  2. A burr is a seed-bearing head: it can carry several fruits with seeds inside, rather than being one seed.

    Manitoba Agriculture: Common Burdock

    Latter (1941), A Factor in the Dispersal of Burdock

    A burdock burr is a seed-bearing head holding several fruits, not a single seed. Adults should handle or remove burs without pulling them apart.

  3. A mature single maple samara can rotate as it falls; its wing interacts with air and slows descent.

    Caltech (2009): Maple Seeds and Animals Exploit the Same Trick to Fly

    US Forest Service: Silvics of North America, Norway Maple

    A mature intact maple samara may need sufficient falling distance to establish a clear spin. The illustrated short drop is a plausible example, not a measured trial.

  4. A dandelion dispersed unit has a small fruit at one end of a slender stalk and a tuft of fine bristles at the other.

    UC Statewide IPM: Dandelion

    The ordinary word seed refers here to a tiny fruit containing a seed. Its thin stalk joins the fruit to the tuft.

  5. Moving air can carry dandelion fruits with their tufts; the bristles help slow falling.

    Cummins et al. (2018): A separated vortex ring underlies the flight of the dandelion

    RHS: Seed dispersal

    Release and movement vary with moisture, maturity and air conditions. Many fruits land nearby; no particular distance is promised.

  6. Dispersal moves seeds to other places, through attachment to a carrier or movement in air; arriving somewhere does not ensure growth.

    RHS: Seed dispersal

    Cummins et al. (2018): A separated vortex ring underlies the flight of the dandelion

    UC Statewide IPM: Dandelion

    Movement and landing do not guarantee germination or survival. No growth outcome is depicted or tested.

Water and Wind

Water and Wind, pages 1–2: Wind moves the pinwheel.

Spread 1 / 12

Wind tickles my cheek. Round goes my pinwheel.

Explore the science

Wind & forcesPages 1–2

Wind moves the pinwheel. Wind is moving air. Vince feels it on his cheek and sees it push the pinwheel's angled blades.

Ask together: What tells you that the air is moving?

Currents & eddiesPages 3–4

Water passes the rock. A leaf circles behind it. Most water passes the rock; some circles back in an eddy. Laminar flow is orderly; turbulence is irregular, mixing motion. A swirl alone cannot distinguish them.

Ask together: How does the leaf move compared with the water passing the rock?

Waves & energyPages 5–6

Waves spread from the stream. The duck bobs. The falling stream makes waves that carry energy outward and make the toys bob. The stream's current also carries toys along. Bobbing and drifting are different motions.

Ask together: What moves up and down? What moves along the pond?

BuoyancyPages 7–8

A duck floats. A pebble sinks. Water pushes upward on both objects. This buoyancy balances the duck's weight, but not the pebble's. The pebble's splash makes the rings on the next spread.

Ask together: Where is each object compared with the surface?

When waves meetPages 9–10

Two wave patterns approach one another. When gentle waves overlap, their heights add, briefly raising or lowering the surface. This interference does not erase the waves; they continue through one another.

Ask together: What might happen where the two patterns meet?

Surface tensionPages 11–12

Tiny dents appear beneath the strider’s legs. Surface tension helps support the strider where its water-repellent legs dent the water. The duck floats mainly by displacing water.

Ask together: What do you notice where its legs meet the water?

Suction & pressurePages 13–14

The duck bubbles, fills and squirts. Squeeze underwater: air bubbles out. Release with the opening submerged: the elastic duck springs back, lowering pressure inside. The surrounding water pressure pushes water in. Squeeze above water: water exits through that same opening.

Ask together: What changes when Vince squeezes and then lets go?

Lift & gravityPages 15–16

A paper plane glides forward and down. The throw starts the plane moving. Airflow around its wings produces lift and turns air downward. Gravity pulls down; drag resists motion. In still air, the plane glides forward and gradually descends.

Ask together: Where might the plane go next?

ViscosityPages 17–18

Milk runs. Honey stretches into a thread. Honey's greater viscosity means greater resistance to flow. It makes a slow thread while milk runs readily. Temperature and pouring method also matter; this snack is an observation, not a controlled test.

Ask together: How do the milk and honey move differently?

Draining & swirlingPages 19–20

Foam curves inward toward the drain. Gravity drives water through the drain. Existing turning motion can become a curved inward flow, traced by foam. Here water travels to the outlet, unlike waves crossing the pond. Not every drain swirls.

Ask together: Can you follow the foam toward the drain?

Scientific observationPages 21–22

Vince sketches what he noticed. Vince records something he noticed. Drawings, marks or words let him return to an observation. He does not need all the answers.

Ask together: Which earlier picture matches one of his drawings?

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