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