We’re
currently studying cells both plant & animal. This week we did a very
simple experiment to illustrate the way water travels through a plant stem. All
we needed was a celery stalk, water, a measuring cup & blue food coloring.
Trim about 3 centimeters off the stalk.
Add 100ml of water to a clear jar or
cup. Put in 2 droplets of the coloring. Place the stalk into the water. Set a
kitchen timer for 30 minutes. Come back & what you should see is the blue
traveling up throughout the stalk via the veins.
To add a bit more of a WOW factor,
repeat the experiment but substitute any type of white flower instead of the
celery. Make sure that you wait the 30 minutes. You should end up with a blue
flower.
For fun, I mean, for the sake of
science, we repeated it multiple times. Instead of celery, we used a carrot, a
green pepper (cut in half) and we also tried various colors instead of the
blue. I will say blue worked the best. Purple was attempted but, the colors
didn’t mix like we’d assumed. Basically, we had a piece with some red &
some blue.
Things I loved about this experiment
included the easy clean up. No stains; no fuss. Happily, I had celery on hand.
Food coloring would be the biggest expense, but, I had that too.
He enjoyed it. Celery was easy for
him to work with as was the dropper for the food coloring. We were able to
complete the experiment, fill out our observation worksheets, & clean up
all within an hour.
We took pictures to document each
step, too. He was able to re-create the event to his brothers by literally
showing them what he’d done.
If we were to do it again, I would
probably videotape it. Flowers would’ve been our focus versus the vegetables.
We’d have gotten more white flowers of different varieties.
I’d also try to get more varieties
of food coloring. I know they sell neon colors somewhere.
It’s a winner due to its simplicity,
low cost, & that he had fun. If it’s not fun than why bother?
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