Such was the question during an engineering activity we did in science this past week.
First we compared beach umbrellas, which sometimes topple over and blow away in the wind, to trees. Trees have trunks that can bend a bit and branches that can sway in the wind. They have roots that extend into and hold onto the ground. They have leaves that move around and let air through the tops.
After admiring some of these natural parts of trees and some of their functions, we each made a mini beach umbrella, with straws, pipe cleaners, and paper, complete with an umbrella stand of clay in a Dixie cup. Then, we used a big piece of paper to create wind and make them all blow over. After that each student could then decide to make a new, different umbrella or to adapt their first. They were so creative and motivated to try different things and repeatedly go back over to the testing table to make "wind" and see how long their revised design could stand up to it. They came up with some great ideas...and came up with other ideas that they thought would be great but then quickly changed their thinking after testing. It was neat to see this engineering process in action while beginning to think about the parts of a plant.
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