We’ve been doing a celery experiment which is designed to show how a plant draws water up through the stem towards the leaves.

This was an effective and inexpensive experiment which the boys enjoyed. Did I mention that it’s very simple?

Materials Needed for the Celery Experiment

• A stalk of celery
• A jug or glass
• Water
• Food Colouring

How to Do the Celery Experiment

Actually, this experiment is so simple there’s really no need for lengthy explanations. All you have to do is:

add food colouring to the water in a jug

add the celery to the coloured water

leave the celery to stand in the water for at least 3 hours. As we had two stalks, we left one for 3 hours and the other for 12 hours.

cut the celery to inspect inside the stem.

This is what we found when we cut across the celery stem.

Actually, cutting up the celery became the main focus of one of our scientists.

When layers of the celery were removed with a vegetable peeler lengthways, we discovered ‘veins’ of red running up the stalk.

A magnifying glass is a good idea when it comes to examining the results.

To extend this activity, we used photos which needed to be sequenced and brief descriptions written to describe what happened. This worked out well as it allowed maths (sequencing) and language to be extended.

All this from the humble celery plant!

You may also like these activities:

Homemade Personalised Photos

Leaf Sorting Activity

Return to the Articles List for other children’s learning activities or children’s book reviews.