Seed Dispersal

A few weeks ago, I  planned a supposed to be A+ lesson. Why it was an A+ lesson?

Last year, I attended a Science course. The presenters made some juice with some seeds ( I can't remember the names of the seeds) and let us drink during the lessons. The lesson is about seed dispersal and the seeds are related to some method of seed dispersal. I really enjoyed the lesson so much and I told myself this is the kind of learning experience I would like my pupils to have.

I remember one of my former colleagues, Winnie, shared with me this maple seed origami five years ago. So I went to google and luckily I still could find the links ,
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~jwmills/EDUCATION.NOTEBOOK/origami/origami.html .

So I went to buy some chocolates, Andes® mint wrappers. They are not cheap, cost about $8 for a class.

I was  very happy that after 5 years,  the folding origami maple seed website has evolved to a video .

I practised folding it during March holidays.

On that day of the lesson, I was very excited to implement this A+ lesson, that kind of learning experience every one would yearn to have.

The lesson failed miserably.

The video was not clear in the Science room due to the lighting conditions. The chocolate wrapper was too small and there were many lines of folds that confused the kids. None of them was able to follow and I could not complete my lesson objectives on that day.

I was very very upset because of the time wasted and also the money I spent on the chocolates. And my pupils also complained to me that I shouldnt use chocolate wrapper instead I should use colour paper. My intention was to let them taste the chocolates and enjoy learning and now in return they gave me feedback that the wrappers caused the lesson to fail.

In the end, I told them to bring back the wrapper the next day and those with the torn and crumpled wrapper have to bring a new sheet of paper to continue.

I went home to practise and would do a live demo the next day.

On second day, some pupils brought A4 sized paper. I started to comment that the paper may be too big and too heavy for the maple seed to spin because of the preconception I have. I am quite fixed to my idea and also tend to follow the video and the website.

Nevertheless, we continued and perserved and tested. To my surprise, the A4 sized maple seed spun very well when we threw it from the 4th storey of our classroom. They spun beautifully.

I must say my pupils made me grow , made me experiment and more importantly, open to new suggestions.

Next year, I would use a live demo and a BIGGER sheet of paper, A4 sized. Then the lesson is surely an

lesson.