Spherical Seed Bombs & Biodiversity

Elaborating Spherical Seed Bombs for Biodiversity Conservation

• Seed bombs help conserve biodiversity through reforestation.
• Seed bombs promote flora, providing oxygen.
• This activity builds on prior knowledge of plants contributing to decontamination and conservation.
• Illegal activities negatively impact natural heritage, requiring preservation strategies.

Initial Questions for Consideration

• Understanding spherical seed bombs requires grasping a sphere's radius, diameter, area, and volume.
• A sphere is generated by rotating a semi-circle around its central axis.
• Calculating soil needed for 20 seed bombs of equal diameter requires knowing the volume of one bomb.

Understanding Spherical Seed Bombs

• Seed bombs consist of earth, clay, and vegetable seeds.
• Created by mixing materials, forming balls, drying, and dispersing.
• Clay and earth dissolve when it rains, providing a substrate for seed growth.
• Hardened clay makes seeds less likely to be eaten by birds.
• Seed bombs allow seed spreading in hard-to-reach areas.

Exploring a Sphere: Using an Orange as a Model

• An orange serves as a model to examine sphere characteristics.
• Lemons, potatoes, and inflated balls are examples of sphere-like objects.
• Halving an orange helps identify the center, radius, and diameter of the semi-sphere.
• Radius is the distance from the center to the edge; diameter is the full distance across.
• Rotating a semi-sphere creates a sphere via revolution.
• Orange representation includes labeled radius and general elements.

Analyzing the Semi-Sphere

• A semi-sphere results from cutting an orange in half.
• A semi-sphere is one of two halves of a sphere.
• A stick or skewer determines the maximum measure across the cut orange.
• The stick intersection point marks the sphere's center.
• The length from the intersection point to the orange's edge is the radius.
• The diameter is composed of two radius lengths.
• Answers about sphere parts should be validated using resources.

Calculating Soil Quantity in a Seed Bomb

• A cylinder's height equals twice its radius.
• A semi-sphere's volume is one-third of a cylinder's volume, assuming equal diameters.

Comparing Cylinder and Semi-Sphere Volumes

• A semi-sphere's volume is one-third of a cylinder's volume if they share a diameter.
• Three semi-sphere fillings equal one cylinder volume, given equal diameters.
• A complete sphere's volume is two-thirds of the cylinder's volume.
• Formulas for calculating cylinder and sphere volumes are explored; more detail to follow.

Making Seed Bombs

• Clay is included to solidify the seed bomb mixture.
• Natural fertilizer should be used when planting.
• Gather soil, clay, water, native plant seeds, lemon, and paper as materials.
• Seed bomb size should approximate that of a lemon for easy handling.
• If 65-68 students each make 10 seed bombs, an area can be reforested.