The Celery Experiment
Grade Level: 3
Strand: Understanding Life Systems
Topic: Growth and Changes in Plants
Specific Expectation:
-Use scientific inquiry/experimentation skills, and knowledge acquired from previous
investigations, to investigate a variety of ways in which plants meet their basic needs.
-Describe the basic needs of plants, including air, water, light, warmth, and space.
-Follow established safety procedures during science and technology investigations.
Materials Needed:
-Plastic Knife (Supervised by an adult).
-Celery stalk.
-Clear plastic cups.
-Food Colouring
-Water
Procedure:
-To begin, place a quarter cup of water into a clear plastic cup.
-Add ten drops of food colouring into the water.
-Cut a celery stalk in half and have students place it in the water.
-After an hour check the celery to see the progress.
-Have students make observations and predictions.
-After a full 24 hours, slice the celery stalk in half and show students the inside.
Scientific Principle:
Explain to students that just as people have veins to make our blood flow through our bodies,
plants have veins that water flows through. The plants filter water from the dirt and the water
flows through the plant.
Plants absorb water through their roots through a process called osmosis. Water travels through
the stems to all parts of the plant and is used during photosynthesis to make food for the plant.
When food colouring is added to the water, it travels with the water into the celery stems and into
the leaves. The food colouring illustrates how plants receive their nutrients. Explain to students by
drawing an illustration on the board that the tubes that carry the water in celery sticks are called
xylems.
References:
http://www.teaching-tiny-tots.com/toddler-science-celery-experiment.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2109198_do-celery-science-experiment.html
Opportunities & Other Considerations:
-Use other plants to illustrate the experiment. For example, white carnations.
-Tell students not to eat the celery and keep the knifes away from them. Have an adult cut the
celery beforehand. During the experiment, a teacher or volunteer can cut the celery in half for the
students to observe.
-To observe the effect of different environmental factors, place one celery stalk in the sun and
another celery stalk in the shade.
-Rather than waiting a full 24 hours to slice the celery, slice it at different time intervals (for
example, every hour, or every other hour). Students can measure with a ruler how far the food dye
has traveled up the celery stalk and can graph the results.
-Pictures could be taken of each steps in the process of the celery filtering the food colouring
water. Students can sequence these pictures on a board in the correct order.
-Another possible extension could be creating a book illustrating each of the steps in the process
of filtering food colouring water. This could be used as an assessment tool where students could
orally describe each of the steps associated with the picture in the book.
-For gifted students, provide them with a more detailed scientific explanation where possible (i.e.explain the process of transpiration). Where possible, provide them with more challenging
questions.
Melissa Ambos and Heather Dubreuil
PJ Section 2
EDUC 4282