People in space get to float around inside the spaceship and eat food by squirting it. Well, plants can have a wild time up there too. 265 cherry seeds from a thousand-year-old Japanese tree went into space for a few months. Some seeds were then planted back on Earth, and grew into blossoming trees years sooner than usual. The question is, how will the cherries from these trees taste? Out of this world.
Wee ones: If the tree was planted 7 years ago, are you older or younger than that tree?
Little kids: If cherry trees should take 10 years to bloom and this one took 5 years, how many years early are these flowers? You can count up from 5 to find out! Bonus: If you’re planting 12 cherry trees in rows with an equal number of trees in each row, how many different ways can you arrange those rows?
Big kids: If 4 trees each grow 400 cherries, how many space cherries do we get? (Hint if needed: what if each tree grew just 40 cherries? And how would this answer differ?) Bonus: If a cherry pie needs 200 cherries, how many out-of-this-world cherry pies can you bake?
Answers:
Wee ones: Different for everyone…see if your age in years is more or less than 7!
Little kids: 5 years too early. Bonus: You can do 1 row of 12 trees, 2 rows of 6 trees, 3 rows of 4 trees – and the reverse: 4 rows of 3 trees, 6 rows of 2 trees, or 12 rows of 1 tree.
Big kids: 1,600 cherries. Bonus: 8 cherry pies.
