Second Grade · Science · week 13

Build a seed that flies

Design, build, and test a paper seed model that spins or falls slowly to mimic how wind carries real seeds away from a plant.

Some real seeds, like the winged seed of a maple tree, spin like tiny helicopters as they fall, which helps the wind carry them farther from the parent tree before they land. This week you get to be the engineer and build your own spinning seed model out of paper.

A good design catches air to slow the fall and often spins on the way down. If your first design just drops straight and fast, that is useful information. You can change it and test again, just like real engineers do.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Help fold and cut a simple paper seed template, then let your child test the drop themselves from a safe height, like the top of the stairs.
  • Encourage at least one redesign after the first test, changing only one thing at a time.
  • Compare drop time with a phone timer or by counting seconds out loud together.
  • Connect the design back to last week's real wind-traveling seeds, like dandelions and maple seeds.
Talk about it:
  • What made your seed model spin, or not spin?
  • What would you change to make it fall even more slowly?
  • Which real seed does your design remind you of most?

Mastery looks like: They build a paper seed model that demonstrates wind dispersal by spinning or floating when dropped, and explain one design choice that helped.

Common stumbles: Building a model too heavy or too flat to catch air; changing more than one part of the design at once, making it hard to tell what actually helped.

Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
Records attendance + 15 min of Science for this learner.
← Back to todayAll coursesYear planner