Celery in Food Colored Water - Science Experiment

This week in science students put on their Science Notebooking Cap and participated in a very engaging lesson.  Yesterday, students wrote predictions about what they thought would happen when they put water in a cup, added food coloring, and then placed a celery stock in it.  After completing their hypothesis, students conducted the experiment.  This morning students observed what happened to the celery over night.  Many students were surprised and excited to see that the celery and the celery leaves changed color to match the colored water.  Students learned that the celery and leaf color changed due to the xylem.  The xylem acted like a straw; it sucked up the colored water and delivered it to the celery leaves.  Students connected the celery experiment to plants.  When we water the soil of a plant, the water is sucked up through the xylem and delivered to different parts of a plant.  Photographs from our experiment are below.