Gliding Fruits Technical & Teaching Notes Related sheets Falling from trees; Coconuts; Parachuting fruits; Spinning fruits; One-winged fruits; Two-winged fruits Introduction and context Gliding is one way that the fruits and seeds of some plants have adapted and evolved to improve their dispersal. The Javan cucumber (Alsomitra macrocarpa) is a wonderful example of a plant that produces fruit that releases seeds capable of gliding vast distances. The plant grows in the forests of Java, Indonesia. The fruits are about the size of a football and each is packed with hundreds of winged seeds. The seeds fall from the underside of the fruit and glide vast distances. For information: A Javan cucumber seed has a mass of 0.3 g, a transparent wing with a span of 15 cm, and a wing thickness of less than 0.01 mm (less than 1/10th the thickness of a sheet of paper). Other winged fruits and seeds rotate as they fall. Typically they descend at about 100 cm each second. But the design of the Javan cucumber seed means that it descends at the shallow angle of 12 degrees and falls only 40 cm each second. The seed inspired early aircraft wing design and its aerodynamic properties have been researched. The activities in this sheet could be used alongside any of the other sheets in Seed dispersal. Possible barriers to learning The session allows a number of common misconceptions associated with gravity and objects falling to Earth. Depending on the nature of discussions with students, misconceptions that could be addressed include: gravity = ‘downness’ when an object is stationary, no forces are acting on it heavy objects fall faster than light objects something stops moving because the force has run out air doesn’t weigh anything particles are the same as visible grains as in for example. Links to National curriculum for science in England at key stage 3 In biology pupils should be taught about reproduction, which includes: reproduction in plants, including flower structure, wind and insect pollination, fertilisation, seed and fruit formation and dispersal, including quantitative investigation of some dispersal mechanisms In physics pupils should be taught about forces, pressure in fluids and forcers and motion. This includes: forces as pushes or arising from the interaction between two objects using force arrows in diagrams, adding forces in one dimension, balanced and unbalanced forces forces: with pushing things out of the way; resistance to motion of air and water
Gliding Fruits Technical & Teaching Notes Related sheets Falling from trees; Coconuts; Parachuting fruits; Spinning fruits; One-winged fruits; Two-winged fruits Introduction and context Gliding is one way that the fruits and seeds of some plants have adapted and evolved to improve their dispersal. The Javan cucumber (Alsomitra macrocarpa) is a wonderful example of a plant that produces fruit that releases seeds capable of gliding vast distances. The plant grows in the forests of Java, Indonesia. The fruits are about the size of a football and each is packed with hundreds of winged seeds. The seeds fall from the underside of the fruit and glide vast distances. For information: A Javan cucumber seed has a mass of 0.3 g, a transparent wing with a span of 15 cm, and a wing thickness of less than 0.01 mm (less than 1/10th the thickness of a sheet of paper). Other winged fruits and seeds rotate as they fall. Typically they descend at about 100 cm each second. But the design of the Javan cucumber seed means that it descends at the shallow angle of 12 degrees and falls only 40 cm each second. The seed inspired early aircraft wing design and its aerodynamic properties have been researched. The activities in this sheet could be used alongside any of the other sheets in Seed dispersal. Possible barriers to learning The session allows a number of common misconceptions associated with gravity and objects falling to Earth. Depending on the nature of discussions with students, misconceptions that could be addressed include: gravity = ‘downness’ when an object is stationary, no forces are acting on it heavy objects fall faster than light objects something stops moving because the force has run out air doesn’t weigh anything particles are the same as visible grains as in for example. Links to National curriculum for science in England at key stage 3 In biology pupils should be taught about reproduction, which includes: reproduction in plants, including flower structure, wind and insect pollination, fertilisation, seed and fruit formation and dispersal, including quantitative investigation of some dispersal mechanisms In physics pupils should be taught about forces, pressure in fluids and forcers and motion. This includes: forces as pushes or arising from the interaction between two objects using force arrows in diagrams, adding forces in one dimension, balanced and unbalanced forces forces: with pushing things out of the way; resistance to motion of air and water
SAPS%20-%204%20Gliding%20fruits%20-%20teachers%20notes.docx