Science And Blue Salad!

I’m sure everyone else has been doing this for years and I’m always the last person to hear of anything BUT I am finally the proud owner of chinese leaves.

Apparently these are marvellous for doing this particular experiment and you can eat them afterwards, provided your kids aren’t the sensitive sort.  The last thing you need after a bit of science is to be scraping your children off the ceiling.

You’ve probably worked out by now that I’m all for the speedy set up, easy to do crafty activities and if it teaches the kids something, then game on!

Science And Blue Salad!

This is a great way to show kids how plants ‘drink’ (or transpiration as it’s officially called).  Water gets sucked up by biochemical reactions and evaporation and as water is sticky stuff, it all gets dragged up the little tubes, or xylem inside the plant.   A fine example of capillary action!

What you need:

• A glass
• Food colouring (we only used blue this time – must go shopping)
• Chinese leaf or a pale coloured cut flower (carnations or daisies are best but I only had a daff).
• Warm tap water

What you do:

• Add food colouring to the warm water – about 20-30 drops per half cup of water.
• Cut the stem of your leaf or flower at an angle while under the water
• Wait
• Admire!

You can also (if you’re organised and have two different colours) slit the stem up the middle and put half in one colour and half in the other.  You need to make sure that the cut surfaces are under the water.

What do you think will happen then?

Don’t forget to look at our other fun craft activities!