Elinor Wonders Why: The Seed of an Idea

"Ari arrives at school eager to show off his cool new watch. But Elinor is more interested in the watch's strap than in keeping time (or paying attention in class!). One side of the strap is fuzzy and one side is scratchy, and somehow the two parts stick together. How does it work? She has to learn more about this fascinating fastener! Elinor enlists the help of Ari and Olive to get to the bottom of this sticky mystery. During recess, they test out the watch's scratchy patch to see what else it sticks to, but after many attempts, they only have a couple items on their list. A walk through the schoolyard provides more opportunities to experiment ... and leads to a breakthrough. When Elinor tugs at a little spiky burr that gets stuck to Ari's shirt, it makes the same skkrrrtch sound as the watch strap when its pulled apart! The trio put their heads together and figure out that the strap and burr work in the same way: by using tiny hooks to latch on to a fuzzy surface. Nature has some great ideas! Curious minds will be hooked as Elinor, Olive and Ari unravel another mystery of science and nature. By following their curiosity, making observations and creating connections, the three friends work together to learn something new about how the world works -- and have fun while they're at it! The back matter includes more fun facts about other inventions inspired by nature, a key vocabulary word and a simple activity for young scientists to explore further."--