Module 6: Engineering Reproduction

Not just a pretty plant part, flowers are the key to species continuation for millions of plant species world wide. from tiny almost unnoticeable flowers to blooms the size of a basketball, plants have developed and adapted over time to ensure their survival in the world. Spring is an excellent time to focus in on flowers and plant reproduction. As the garden becomes abundant with bees, plants begin their awesome transformation from a leafy clump to a dancing stalk of colorful allurement. Looking into the special parts of flowers, their function, and also understanding the show itself can provide an eye-opening experience that will plunge students into the secret world of plants. 

Flowers are made up of 7 main parts that all play a role in the continuation of their species. The Petals are the most commonly identified part, their job is to attract pollinators including bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats and many more. The Stigma can be found as a large tube extending from the base of the flower, this is the part that traps pollen and sends it down through the Pistil and into the Ovary which contains egg cells that can then become fertilized, creating the beginnings of a fruit and seed. Next to the Stigma you will find  the Stamen which provides support for the pollen producing Anther. The final flower part to be examined are the Sepals which lie to the base of the flower where they formally protected the bud. Each of these parts plays an impressive role in plant reproduction and has been individually engineered by each varying species to meet the specific needs of the plant as well as its environment. 

Looking at flowers with loupes (magnifiers), students should be encouraged to identify each individual part, and determine what role they think that it plays in the overall goal of pollination. Students should be given at least 5 flowers of very different construction to get a sense of how individual species have developed in different ways with the same main parts. 

The goal of these observations is to create a foundation to begin inventing their own creations with the goal of engineering functional flowers and competing to create the best design for reproduction. 

the beginning of a more simple flower design

For the design process, students were provided with materials to choose from including, paper cups, double sided tape, Q-Tips, pipe cleaners, cotton 
balls, straws, construction paper and scissors. The outlines given were that they needed to create a flower that included each part, and based on what they had learned about the role of those parts, they could mimic the design based on function. the goal was to create a flower that would be able to trap the most pollen (we used flour) in the ovary. A pipe cleaner insect was created by the instructor to "visit" each flower and move pollen from one to the other. The project itself took about three 45 minute sessions where students explored varying flower species and then began their designs.

During the design process students were asked plenty of questions regarding their material choices, how they were engineering different parts and how their design would help meet the functional needs of the part. Each and every one of them had brilliant answers and ideas!

At the end of the project each student had not only learned the basic botany of flowers but also gained a unique connection and understanding toward the magnificent ways that plants have evolved to meet their reproductive needs.

Below are our two winners. Sitting on the table is the beauty of the competition, this student put her heart into creating a flower that would be very showy and attractive to pollinators, but unfortunately lost focus on some of the important engineering for function. She forgot to create an ovary at the bottom to catch the pollen. However, this flower most certainly won best of show!


The flower being held up was able to collect the most amount of pollen in the ovary based on design, you can see that the student employed a very sticky Stigma which leads down the red pipe cleaner (Pistil) into the Ovary (a small hole in the bottom of the cup). She also chose to create her Stamen & Anther using Q-Tips and designed very simple petals on the inside, as well as large "landing pad" petals on the outside to be able to attract larger insects.