Some ideas:
Fun fruit dispersal--maple whirlies, cockleburs, sweetgum balls,
Asteraceae achenes with parachutes or awns, needlegrass, rattly seed
pods, milkweed seeds, beggar-ticks, etc.
Sensitive plant (you may need multiple pots to rotate in and out)
Carnivorous plants--sundews and flytraps are the most popular
Guess-the-inside with unusual fruits like papaya, mango, whole
coconut, chayote, cherimoya, etc.
Paper-making. If you have a shredded-paper stash soaking, you can
blend, pour, mold, and unmold in less than 5 min. Let kids look at
paper with a magnifying glass or simple microscope, and hand out made
paper sheets from previous batches (you'll have to make some ahead)
Plant pigments--put on garbage-bag ponchos and play with cactus fruit
pulp, beet stamps, blueberries, etc.
Potato candy. Peel, boil, and mash a potato. Add 1 cup powdered
sugar. It will liquefy. Keep adding powdered sugar until you have a
paste. Flavor and color as desired. Roll, shape, cut with cutters or
whatever. Let dry and eat!
Cotton--I don't know where you live, but if you can score some cotton
bolls, some raw cotton, some cleaned and de-seeded cotton, and a pile
of cotton seeds to play with, the kids can have a blast seeing where
blue jeans come from.
Monique Reed
Beverly Brown wrote:
>> Hi to all!
>> Our local science museum asks scientists to come in on Saturdays and do
> something interactive with kids. The kids are wandering by various
> displays and may stop at our tables for 5-10 minutes max. I need some
> intriguing, interactive plant ideas for ages from toddler to 3rd or 4th
> grade.