Lab #10 – The Celery Experiment

Lab #9 – The Celery Experiment

Problem

How does a plant get water from its roots to its leaves?  Are all of the cells and tissues in a plant the same, or are there differences?

Hypothesis 

Materials

Celery

Celery seeds

Food coloring

Water

Plastic cup

Scissors

Ruler

Hand lens

  

Procedure

 1.          Make observations of your celery seeds in the Results.

2.          Make observations of your celery stalk in the Results.

3.          Cut about 2.5 cm off the bottom of the celery stalk and make observations on the celery stalk’s cross section.

4.          Fill up a plastic cup with 250 ml of water and add two drops of food coloring.  Put your celery stalk, cross section down and leaves up, into the cup of colored water. 

5.          Make observations on your celery stalk experiment.  Make sure to include color and other details such as height, number of leaves, width of cross section, etc.

  

Results

1A                                                                            1B

Observations on the celery seed	Observations on the celery seed magnified

2A                                                                            2B

Observations on the celery stalk	Observations on the celery stalk magnified

3A                                                                             3B

Observations on the celery stalk’s cross section	Observations on the celery stalk’s cross section magnified

4A                                                                            4B

Observations on the celery stalk in colored water	Observations on the celery stalk in colored water magnified

5A                                                                            5B

Observations on the green onion	Observations on the green onion magnified

Analysis

1) Observe: What happened to your celery stalk overnight?

2) How do you know that the water reached the top of the plant?  Cite your evidence.   

3) Look for small circles at the bottom of the stalk that are the color of the food coloring you used. (These circles are xylem, the tubes that carry water up the plant.) Draw pictures and make observations about the xylem in your celery.
4) Infer: What happened to the xylem?  
5) Review: How does a plant get water from its roots to the rest of the plant?
6) Are all of the cells and tissues in a plant the same, or are there differences?  Where is your evidence?

Observations on the celery stalk in colored water

Conclusion