Today from Bedtime Math: A Very Snappy Plant

Try this fun math challenge with your kids!

Taking care of plants is pretty easy, right? All you do is water them, give them the right amount of sunlight, and toss them a hamburger every once in a while.

Huh? Plants don't eat meat! Well, actually some of them do, most famously the Venus Flytrap. While most plants get all their food from gases in the air and nutrients in the soil, the Flytrap also needs to eat an insect every now and then. That's because these plants are originally from the bogs of North and South Carolina, where the soil isn't rich enough food for the Flytrap. The plant's leaves have a sweet nectar that attracts insects. When a bug lands on a leaf to hang out, it touches trigger hairs that send the signal to snap shut - bam! The plant then takes 5 to 12 days to enjoy dinner. 

Now here's today's math ~

Wee ones: If your Venus Flytrap gets nutrition from the air, dirt, bugs, and plant fertilizer, how many types of "food" is that?

Little kids: If your flytrap eats 2 flies, 3 crickets and 4 beetles this month, how many insects has it eaten?  Bonus: If instead it ate only 2 bugs per week for 4 weeks, how many bugs would that be?

Big kids: If your flytrap stays closed for 2 weeks while it digests its lunch, how many days is that?  Bonus: If your plant has 7 traps and each trap has 6 trigger hairs, how many trigger hairs do bugs have to watch out for?

Answers:

Wee ones: 4 sources of food.

Little kids: 9 bugs.  Bonus: 8 bugs.

Big kids: 14 days.  Bonus: 42 trigger hairs.

...And even if you don't have a plant that snaps, maybe you have a camera that does!  It's Bedtime Math's Math in a Snap campaign: head outside to find cool shapes in nature, snap a photo, and send it in to show it off on our website!  Check out the details here.