Which Paper Flower Blooms the Quickest?

Blooming paper flowers is one of my daughters' favorite activities (besides oobleck). This magic flowers would surely mesmerize both children and adults! We already did this activity twice. But this time, we furnished with a little bit of scientific approach. We would like to find out which paper flower blooms the quickest once we popped them into the water. I made five different flower designs, one with small petals with big center, another with long petals and small center, and other designs (you may refer to the template). I then asked my daughters their guesses on which flower will bloom the quickest. They came with different hypotheses and reasoning. When asking them their hypotheses, I also demand their justifications. I didn't simply stop at "Which?", I then continued with "Why?" and "How?".

Do this today. It surely put the widest grin into your children's face. 

Here are a few websites and YouTube videos that you can discuss while waiting for the flowers to bloom. Enjoy!

Read about flowers:

• What? We got male and female flowers? Yes, read here.
• Facts on plants here.
• More kids-friendly info about flowers here.

Videos on flowers:

• Starts with this simple explanation. (I bet your kids will love this video with "Up" soundtrack at the back. One of my favorite tunes.)
• Then explain each function of flower parts with the help of this video. 
• More video here.

Fun facts about flowers (credits to here and here):

• Broccoli is actually a flower.
• Several centuries ago in Holland, tulips were more valuable than gold.
• Some plants such as orchids do not need soil to grow-they get all of their nutrients from the air.
• Some plants produce toxic substances that kill other plants around them, for e.g., the sunflower.
• The Bird of Paradise is a beautiful, oddly shaped plant that resembles a colorful tropical bird.
• Some flowers smell like rotting flesh. The titan arum is also called the corpse flower because of its foul smell. The blossoms of Bradford Pear trees are equally offensive.
• During Victorian times, flowers were used to communicate feelings or thoughts. For example, a pink carnation meant, "I'll never forget you," while a stripped carnation sent the message, "No, I can't be with you.". A purple hyacinth meant, "I'm sorry," while a yellow one meant, "I'm jealous."
• Many orchids don't need soil to grow-they can get all the nutrition they need from the air instead!
• Moonflowers bloom only at night. Their cousins, morning glories, bloom in the morning.

 What you need:

Paper flower template

Saucer

Water 

Stopwatch

 1. Carefully cut the flowers template.

 2. Pour water into the saucer.

 3. Fold the petals over one by one. 

 4. Pop the paper flower onto the water and watch them open up, just like a real flower blossoming!

 5. Time the blossoming flowers once you put onto the water and stop the stopwatch when they petals fully untangled.

 6. Document your observation. 

 No, we didn't use any butterflies as our equipment. 

 Good hypothesis, Iesha.

 So we found out that flower with the smallest center blooms the quickest. 

 Learning about flowers.

 Cut and paste activity for Iyra.

 Simple fill in the blank worksheet for Iesha.

 A more challenging worksheet for Iris.

 Iris fervidly explain about flowers to her sisters. She started the class with "Did you know flowers also got male and female?". She successfully got Iesha jaw dropping, "Really?".

 Free template for you. E-mail me for free Word Version.

Free flowers template

The science behind this experiment (thank you so much to surfing scientist):

The paper flower is powered by a groovy scientific phenomenon called 'capillary action'. Thanks to capillary action, paper absorbs water very rapidly. When paper gets wet, it swells which causes the folded petals of your Magic Flower to open up.

When paper comes into contact with water, the amazing power of capillary action rapidly draws water into all these tiny spaces. It’s because the water is slightly more attracted to the wood fibres than to itself. This helps trees and plants to lift water from their roots up to their leaves. The Sun provides the extra bit of lift required by evaporating water from tiny holes in the leaves called stomata. This process is called transpiration and we wouldn’t be here without it.

But back to your paper flower. When the paper absorbs water (which it does so well thanks to capillary action) it swells. That’s why paper goes wrinkly when it gets wet but it also causes any folds to open back up again. If you folded each neighbouring petal over sequentially, your flower will open very differently than if you folded each opposite pair. Try experimenting with the order and you’ll see what I mean.