Biology Experiment Activity 2
Age 8-12
Materials:
Food Colouring
Water
Beaker
Celery
Procedure:
Add a small amount of water to fill the bottom of the beaker.
Add 6 drops of food colouring to this.
Put the stick of celery standing upright in the beaker with its stalk in the
dyed water.
Leave it for 10 minutes and see what has happened!
Discussion:
All plants have two main transport systems; one for food and one for water.
The phloem tubes carry food down the stem while the xylem tubes brings
water up from the ground to the leaves.
The food is made in the leaves and is brought all around the plant to nourish
each cell. In this experiment, the red dye travels up the stem of the celery to the
leaves. This path shows the movement of water in the celery and is the same for
all plants.
Biology Experiment Activity 2
Age 8-12
Questions:
1. Did the level of the water in the beaker rise or fall during the experiment?
2. Which part of the celery went red first, its leaves or its stem?
3. From watching the movement of the dye, would you say that water moves up
or down in plants?
Answers:
1. Yes, the water level fell as it was consumed by the celery
2. The stem, water needs to travel through the stem to reach the leaves.
3. The water moves up the plant, you can see the colour travel from the bottom
up.