How Seeds Travel

     This activity highlights the special characteristics that seeds have developed to move away from their parent plants.  It includes a lesson about how seeds depend on clever adaptations for their success, and shows how seeds use wind, water, animals, and humans to help them find good places to grow.

     How Seeds Travel can be paired with activities emphasizing the close relationships between plants and animals.  It also corresponds to lessons about invasive plants and how they reproduce themselves so effectively.

     Learning about seeds promotes healthy watershed awareness when individuals gain an appreciation for the weird and wonderful ways plants reproduce by seeds.  This knowledge can become action when people care for native plants and help remove invasives before their seeds can spread.

     This resource has been designed as a classroom program for students in Grades 3-5 or middle schoolers. To adapt this resource for alternative formats and audiences, see our suggestions for Adaptations below.

Click here to view a PDF of the information on this page.

Concepts to Explore: Seeds are the means by which many plants reproduce.  Seeds don’t usually flourish when they try to grow right next to the parent plant, because the parent will outcompete the seedling for light and other resources necessary for life.  As a result, seeds have developed a variety of adaptations so they can move!   

• Some seed pods “explode” and scatter their seeds.

• Seeds also travel by air.  Fuzzy dandelions or maple “helicopters” are familiar examples.

• Water helps some seeds travel, so they can find viable spots on a bank downstream.

• Seeds travel with the help of animals.  Some seeds have tiny hooks that cling to fur (or clothing!) and drop off far from the parent plant.  Squirrels bury acorns (oak seeds) and forget where they are, leaving them to grow into a tree.  Some seeds are eaten and then pass through the digestive tract of animals and are later pooped out ready to grow!

• Invasive plants can be very effective in their means of dispersal.

Suggested Books to Share: (at Anne Arundel County Public Library) Seeds Move or A Seed is Sleepy.

Hands-On-Activity: using seed samples in petri dishes, allow participants to explore examples of seeds first-hand.

Optional Outdoor Activity: Go on a seed hike and look for examples of seeds.  (A copy of the Seed Search Observation Chart should be provided for each student or small group.)

Reflection: Don’t forget to ask your participants what they learned and how they can use their knowledge to take action for a healthy watershed!

Click here to view a PDF copy of the Quick Guide.

Time to Play! – Activity Directions

Materials You Will Need

• Pictures of How Seeds Travel 

• Seed samples in petri dishes

• Copy of Seeds Move or A Seed is Sleepy,  or a way to display the videos for the Seeds Move read aloud or A Seed is Sleepy read aloud 

• Copy of the Seed Search Observation Chart for each person or group

• Copy of Arlington Echo Seed Poster 

A box containing all of these materials is available for Stewards to check out.

Directions 

1. Exploration: Begin with a brief, interactive discussion about how plants reproduce themselves and how seeds are part of the process.

2. Further exploration: Read a book about seeds or watch a short video.  Ask participants to describe what they’re seeing/hearing/noticing in the pictures/words.  Then, share additional images of seeds from Pictures of How Seeds Travel and the Arlington Echo Seed Poster.

3. Hands-On Activity: participants will get to explore samples of seeds first-hand.

4. Continued Exploration Outside (optional): provide an opportunity to hunt for seeds outside and ask participants (either individually or in groups) to fill out the Seed Search Observation Chart.  Continue discussing different seed adaptations.

5. Reflection: get the audience thinking about what they've learned and how they can help deter the spread of seeds from invasive plants and encourage the germination of Bay-friendly plants.

Suggested Prompts for Different Age Groups

• K-2: How do animals help seeds grow? (eating and pooping, hiding and forgetting, sticking and dropping)

• 3-5: What are some adaptations that help seeds travel? Why is that important? (seeds need space to grow, away from possible shade of parent plant)

• Middle School: Seed dispersal is important for plants, but how can humans try to avoid spreading invasive species? (check clothes and boat trailers and bottoms for any hitchhikers.)

• High School: Describe some of the interrelationships between seeds and a healthy environment. (Provide food for wildlife, dispersal aids biodiversity, trees and smaller plants that have the space to grow from seeds provide important habitat, and food.)

• Mixed Age / Families: we recommend drawing questions from our K-5 examples so that everyone will be able to participate.

Sample Lesson Plan

Click here to view a Sample Lesson Plan developed by Watershed Steward Nan Henry.

We believe the activity How Seeds Travel can work with audiences of all ages in a variety of settings.  Keep reading to learn more!

General Suggestions

If an exploration outside is not possible, examine the seeds you have and any pictures available.  Discuss what adaptation makes each seed capable of dispersion.

Virtual Options

Check out the Google Slides presentation “How Seeds Travel” created by Nan Henry.  It includes a Nearpod activity that you can do with your online audience!

Adaptations for Different Audiences

• Grades K-2: Students in this age group might need to be introduced to the concept of seeds.  Seeds Move by Robin Page and A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston are both excellent books for introducing the topic.  Showing sprouts is also a great way to introduce the concept of a seed containing the basis for a whole plant.  If possible, have some sunflower seeds or lima beans sprouting in a baggie with damp paper towels to show a sprouting seed. Lima beans and sunflower seeds sprout quickly, as do radish and lettuce. The larger seeds are easier to see.

• Grades 3-5: Scatology is always engaging.  A fun prompt for this age might be “How is animal poop helpful?”

• Grades 3 and up: discuss the concept of invasive species - a species that has been introduced from elsewhere and spreads quickly because of its ability to out compete native plants.   Often this is because of its method of seed dispersal.  For instance, purple loosestrife has seeds that are light enough to be carried by the wind, float in water, and can hitch a ride on a passing animal.  One mature plant can create over 2.5 million seeds.  Hitchhikers can be unwittingly carried from place to place by hikers who are not careful about checking their clothing for seeds. Recreational boaters are also guilty of transporting plants and seeds attached to their boat.

• Middle and High School: Students may also be introduced to the different types of seeds: berries, fruits, nuts, drupes, etc.  A video and a STEM activity are here.  Alternatively, highlight how Velcro was created after careful observation of burrs that stuck to clothing, and then ask how seeds and their adaptations might inspire another invention.

• Mixed Age / Families: share where you might have seen any seeds, whether you were inside or outside.  (Hint: for many people, the most common place they encounter seeds might be the dinner table!)

Adaptations for Different Formats

The activities for How Seeds Travel can be used in a variety of settings and contexts:

• Large Group Presentation Inside: use the Google Slides lesson and project pictures on a big screen so everyone can see.  This format may have fewer hands-on opportunities, so be sure to engage the group with lots of questions!

• After-school Club: make this activity part of a series of lessons that highlight the relationships between plants and animals, or what it takes to keep our watershed healthy.

• Table at a Community Event or Festival: share the hands on materials, highlight the different types of seeds, and emphasize the role humans play by inadvertently spreading the seeds of invasive species.  (An invasive plant removal event might be a great time to share these materials.)

Key Terms

• Seed - a part of a plant containing the beginnings of a new plant (embryo) surrounded by a seed coat

• Dispersal - spreading or scattering

• Reproduction - process by which a living thing creates a new plant or animal

• Germination - the process by which a plant grows from a seed

Fun Fact!

• Velcro was invented by a swiss engineer inspired by burrs sticking to his clothing after a walk in the woods.

Seeds and Invasive Plants

• Autumn Olive is an invasive tree that produces a seeded berry eaten by birds and dispersed through their poop.

• Cherries are another great example of seeds being dispersed through animal poop.

• Hitchhiker seeds can create problems if hikers inadvertently transport seeds on their clothing, and then disperse them to areas where those seeds do not typically grow.  In this way, hitchhiker seeds can lead to the propagation of invasive species.  Hikers in some places are asked to pull seeds off their socks and pants before leaving for other places.

• Aquatic plants can travel accidentally with the help of humans and their boats.  Recreational boaters might pick up a stem or seed from a plant stuck to their boat or trailer.  Then when they take their boat to a different location, the plant is allowed to grow there.  In Maryland, this is a major source of some of our invasive plants.

• Stop the Hitchhikers: Clean Your Gear

• What YOU Can do to Help Stop the Spread of Invasive Species

More Resources

How Do Seeds Travel? - Overview on traveling seeds from ASU's "Ask a Biologist" site.  Covers seeds with "wings," hitchhikers, and seeds that travel with the help of water and animals. (Printable PDF for this resource.)

How Do Seeds Get Around? -A detailed lesson plan from the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), including three hands-on activities.

Seed Travels - An alternative activity about traveling seeds from PBS Kids.  Includes a worksheet with English and Spanish language versions.

Seed Racer - A fun game on PBS Kids!

The following books are available to check out through Anne Arundel County Public Libraries:

• Seeing Seeds

• Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds

• It Starts With a Seed

• Squirrel's Family Tree

• A Seed is Sleepy

• Seeds Move!