Bernadette to the Rescue by Susan Glickman

Author:Susan Glickman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Second Story Press
Published: 2011-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

“Wow,” said Bernadette. “I guess plants are smarter than most people realize, if they can figure out such good ways to send their babies into the world.”

“You’re absolutely right, Bernadette,” said Jenny. “Now, who can think of some other ways that seeds like to travel?”

“Maple trees make helicopters,” said Matthew. “That’s so they can be carried away by the wind.”

“That’s a great example,” said Jenny. “The reason maple seeds are that shape is so that they can travel far. If the seeds get scattered in many different places by the wind, there is a better chance that some of them will grow into beautiful maple trees.”

“Dandelions are the same way,” said Bernadette. “Except that they produce even more seeds. Can you imagine if there were as many maple trees as there are dandelions? We’d be living in a giant forest!”

“Good point, Bernadette. Oh, hello Toby!” said Jenny as the camp dog wandered over. (Probably he thought that people sitting at a picnic table would be eating a picnic.) “Have you come to join our discussion?”

The kids started to laugh at this, until Jenny said, “Believe it or not, I’m serious. What do you guys see on Toby’s left paw?”

“A burr,” a girl named Maya answered.

Jenny pulled the burr off Toby’s paw and held it up to show the campers. The dog, disappointed that there was no food around and annoyed at having his paw pulled, ran away from them and lay down under a shady tree.

“This is another way seeds get to travel—by hitching a ride on an animal.”

“Or on a person,” said Maya. “I got burrs all over my socks at archery this morning when I went through tall grass looking for lost arrows! It was gross.”

“Actually, you had something a lot like a burr on your feet already,” said Jenny.

“What do you mean?” Maya said, looking down at her shoes with a puzzled expression on her face.

“Those sneakers close with Velcro straps, right? Well, I have an amazing story for you. Velcro was invented by a Swiss scientist who went for a walk with his dog one day and came back covered with burrs. He put one under the microscope to figure out how it stuck to his pants. Under the microscope he saw that the burr was covered with tiny hooks. He also saw that the cloth of his pants was made of tiny loops that those hooks could easily catch onto. These observations gave him the idea for Velcro, a fastener that has hooks on one side and loops on the other.”

“Cool!” said Bernadette, clapping her hands.

“You’re just making this up,” said Matthew.

“No, Matthew, it’s absolutely true,” Jenny said. “There is so much we can learn from nature, if we just remember to use our senses. Observation is the first step of the scientific method.”

“What are the other steps?” asked Maya.

“The second step is to use your past experience and knowledge to help you guess why things are the way you observe them to be. Scientific guesses are called hypotheses,” said Jenny.

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