Cool Science- Lesson 1 - How a Plant transfers water from the soil

Humans and other animals are very interesting living organisms. Let’s take them 1 by one starting with plants. Plant are a simple example of the way life works. You plant it in soil give them water and provide them with enough sunlight and very soon they start to grow bigger and taller, they also start to bloom and once their life cycle is completed they die. The part that of a plant that we do not see is the inside, where all the magic happens, so let us try to understand the most important part of how does a plant get water.

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Question?

How does water move from the soil to the different part of the plant?

What we need for the experiment – (Parents ensure to assist the kids)

Four full glasses of water at room temperature, Yellow, Green, Blue and Red food colouring and 3 white carnations from a florist and a sharp knife

Step by Step

1. Mix 1 colour into each of the four glasses. The stronger the colour of the water, the more effective the outcome will be.

2. Place the first carnation into the glass of your choice. You may need to trim the stem if it is too long.

3. Place your second carnation into another glass.

4. Take your final carnation and, with an adult’s help, slice the stem lengthwise so that it looks like two smaller stems, both of which remain attached to the flower.

5. Place one half on the stem into the thirds glass of coloured water and the other half into the fourth and final glass

6. Place the flower out of the sunlight and wait a day or two.

Then look at each of the flower What’s happening Through a process called capillary action, water travels up through the stems of the plants until it reaches the outermost parts of the flowers. You saw this when the flower of each carnation turned the colour of the water it was sitting in. Even more interesting is that the split stem produced a flower with both colours in it. You could easily repeat this experiment with other flowers and the other colours to see if they behave in the same way. Celery stalks with the leaves on also work well in this experiment. Reference - The Everything Kids' science experiments book

Click Here and watch the reality effect.