There’s nothing better than science in the kitchen! A quick rummage through the fridge and drawers, and you can come up with a simple way to explain and show how water travels through a plant! Set up a celery experiment perfect for kids of all ages. Science experiments can be so simple, give it a try!
CELERY FOOD COLORING EXPERIMENT FOR KIDS!
WHY IS SCIENCE SO IMPORTANT?
Kids are curious and always looking to explore, discover, test, and experiment to find out why things do what they do, move like they move, or change like they change! Indoors or outdoors, science is definitely amazing!
We are always eager to explore chemistry experiments, physics experiments, and biology experiments! Biology is fascinating for kids because it’s all about the living world around us. Activities like this celery experiment show us how water moves through living cells.
Explore how water travels through a plant with a simple demonstration you can do in your own kitchen with just a few items! We love kitchen science that is not only easy to set up but frugal too! Learn about capillary action with a couple stalks of celery and food coloring.
MORE FUN EXPERIMENTS DEMONSTRATING CAPILLARY ACTION
TURN THIS INTO A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT!
You can turn this into a science experiment or science fair project by applying the scientific method. Add a control, a celery stalk in a jar without water. Observe what happens to a stalk of celery without water.
Have your kids come up with a hypothesis, make a prediction, conduct tests, record the results, and draw a conclusion!
You could also try this out with celery that’s not fresh and compare the results.
Make sure to ask your kids plenty of questions along the way without supplying direct answers. This is a great way to get them to use their observation skills, critical thinking skills, and problem-solving skills.
Thinking like a scientist is great for little minds especially if you have a budding scientist!
Click here for your FREE Science Process Pack
CELERY EXPERIMENT
Explore the process of water moving upward through the plant’s stem and into the leaves. It defies gravity!
SUPPLIES:
- Celery Stalks (choose as many as you like to color and one extra if you choose to set up a science experiment too) with leaves
- Food Coloring
- Jars
- Water
INSTRUCTIONS:
STEP 1. Start with nice crisp celery. Cut the bottoms of the celery off so that you have a fresh cut.
Don’t have celery? You could try our color changing carnations experiment!
STEP 2. Fill the containers at least half-way with water and add food coloring. The more food color, the sooner you’ll see results. 15-20 drops at least.
STEP 3. Add the celery sticks to the water.
STEP 4. Wait 2 to 24 hours. Make sure to observe the process at regular intervals to note the progress. Older kids can make drawings and journal their observations throughout the experiment.
Notice how the food coloring moves through the celery’s leaves! Water is making its way through the cells of the celery as indicated by the color.
Note the red food coloring is a bit tougher to see!
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COLORED WATER IN THE CELERY?
How does water travel through a plant? By the process of capillary action! We can see this in action with the celery.
The cut celery stalks take up colored water through their stem and the colored water moves from the stem to the leaves. Water travels up tiny tubes in the plant via the process of capillary action.
What is capillary action? Capillary action is the ability of a liquid (our colored water) to flow in narrow spaces (thin tubes in the celery) without the help of an outside force, like gravity. Plants and trees couldn’t survive without capillary action.
As water evaporates from a plant (called transpiration), it pulls more water up to replace what has been lost. This happens due to the forces of adhesion (water molecules are attracted and stick to other substances), cohesion (water molecules like to stay close together), and surface tension.
DEMONSTRATE CAPILLARY ACTION WITH A CELERY EXPERIMENT
Click on the image below or on the link for more easy science experiments for kids.
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