Sunflowers and STEAM

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. These concepts work well to teach children of all ages how to ask and solve questions (Science), use tools from crayons to computers (Technology), recognize problems and seek solutions (Engineering), illustrate concepts they are learning (Art), and deal with numbers, patterns, shapes, and learn organizational skills (Mathematics).

The different elements of STEAM are all clearly seen by examining the humble sunflower, or Helianthus annum. In a 2017 study published in Nature, scientists had sequenced and identified the sunflower’s genome. This study will allow better understanding of how the sunflower handles climate change since it is already equipped to withstand drought, high soil salinity, vastly variable ecosystems (one variety or another thrives all over the State of Texas), as well as requiring little fertilizer. It is one of the few crops native to the US and provides oil as well as being used for baking, snacks, and birdseed.

While solar cells have gotten better and cheaper in recent years, they still have one drawback – they often don’t move. But a new light-loving, sunflower-inspired polymer may change all of that. A team from UCLA calls it SunBOT, which stands for sunflowerlike Biometric Omnidirectional Tracker. The polymer is capable of a type of phototropism and, like the sunflower, can follow the light source to enable maximum light absorption.

Examining the structure of a sunflower stem as it matures can help both the plant scientist and biomaterials engineer. Since sunflowers are an annual plant, the way they grow is a good template to design flexible polymer composites. The stems grow longitudinally using vascular tissue cells that do not increase in number but in shape and thickness as growth demands. Understanding the underlying structural basis of how the cell walls grow in unison, touching one another without breaking apart, can provide inspiration for the design of composite materials to use in building.

Large heads, tall stems, and intriguing growth habits make for interesting and enchanting paintings of sunflowers throughout the expanse of art after the 1600s when the plant was introduced to Europe. One of the earliest self-portraits prominently featuring a sunflower was painted by Anthony van Dyck, 1632-33, with probably one of the best known being painted by Vincent Van Gogh as well as Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. The sunflower’s symbolism is devotion, fidelity, and loyalty.

Due to the nature of sunflowers actually being composite inflorescences (flower heads), the individual “flowers” are arranged along curved lines which rotate clockwise and counterclockwise and, as such, are a perfect example of the Fibonacci Sequence. An important characteristic of the sequence is the fact that the ratio between each number and the previous one in the series tends toward a well-defined value: 1.618… This is the golden ratio, __ (Phi), that frequentlyoccurs in nature. And sunflowers are one of the most spectacular examples of Fibonacci in nature.

When Forney Education Foundation receives grant requests, like the sunflower, the grant is looked at through all the different aspects of STEAM as well as how it will benefit the students in Forney ISD. Join us and follow FEF like the sunflower as we light the way for teaching and learning. Please go to www. forneyisdfoundation.org.