Xylem water movement demonstation
1) Take Celery or Napa Cabbage (largest you can find) and slice a stalk halfway up the middle.
2) Place two clear containers close together. Add a few drops of food coloring in two different colors to the jars.
3) Add water to the jars to fill to about 1.5 inches deep.
4) Wait about 8 hours and observe the difference!
Plants use little tubes to transport water from where they have it (the ground, usually) to where they need it (in their leaves, where it is "breathed out" through little pores called stomata.
These tubes are called xylem - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylem. When we place the bottom of the cut stem in dyed water, the leaf continues to breathe out water through the stomata, and that acts like sucking pressure on the straw-like tubes of the xylem, so the dyed water is drawn up through the leaf. On the way, it colors the xylem tubes and you can see how they network through the leaf. Pretty!
There is another set of tubes called phloem that carry sugars and other food from the leaves (where they are made from the energy of sunlight) to all other parts of the plant that need it.
2) Place two clear containers close together. Add a few drops of food coloring in two different colors to the jars.
3) Add water to the jars to fill to about 1.5 inches deep.
4) Wait about 8 hours and observe the difference!
Plants use little tubes to transport water from where they have it (the ground, usually) to where they need it (in their leaves, where it is "breathed out" through little pores called stomata.
These tubes are called xylem - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylem. When we place the bottom of the cut stem in dyed water, the leaf continues to breathe out water through the stomata, and that acts like sucking pressure on the straw-like tubes of the xylem, so the dyed water is drawn up through the leaf. On the way, it colors the xylem tubes and you can see how they network through the leaf. Pretty!
There is another set of tubes called phloem that carry sugars and other food from the leaves (where they are made from the energy of sunlight) to all other parts of the plant that need it.
How do seeds grow?
This experiment uses 3 samples to examine the growth of seeds. I always recommend that the adult leading the experiment, attempt it on their own before doing it with a group of children.
What you need:
Directions - Preparation:
What you need:
- three seeds for each child -- corn, bean and radish
- they are large seeds with different shapes and colors
- they have different types of leaves/growth when they start
- they all germinate fairly quickly.
- 8 1/2 x 11 inch (ish) piece of cardstock or light cardboard
- ziploc or plastic lunch bag
- paper towel
- tape
- water
- 2 to 4 weeks of experiment time
- Optional: Magnifying glass
- Optional: Seed information sheet
- Optional: Label the Seed Growth Worksheet
- Optional: Seed Growth Printable Observation Sheets
- You can fill in these sheets daily, when something interesting happens or weekly (it's up to you).
- Make sure you complete a sheet when you first put the seeds in (making observations about what the seed coats look like, feel like, etc).
- Optional: Plant Growth color and label page (label the roots, leaves, stem, flower on the page)
Directions - Preparation:
- Fold the paper towel in half and crease. Unfold. (you can double your paper towel to make it a bit sturdier if you like)
- Poke three very small small holes, equally spaced, along the fold of the paper towel (we used a sharp pencil to do this)
- Place the seeds over top of the holes (one over each hole).
- Fold the paper towel back up and staple up the side (to make a pouch).
- Label the top of the paper towel (bean, corn and radish)
- Carefully place the paper towel (fold side down, so the seeds don't fall out) into the ziploc bag.
- Tape the ziploc bag onto the piece of card stock, leaving the top open. Tape as firmly as possible.
- Pour a small amount of water into the ziplock bag (the paper towel should end up damp) Do not close the bag
- Hang your experiment on the wall in a bright location
- Each morning, check the experiment. Pour more water in to keep the paper towel moist.
- Peek inside the ziploc bag/paper towel to see what the seed is doing
- The seed should break open. The roots should grow down through the small hole you poked in the paper towel.
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