I just had to try the old "coloring Queen Anne's Lace" experiment with the kids. It would show Matt that the flowers really do drink water, and even Nolan likes picking flowers and turning water different colors.After several days, we finally have a hint of color in our red water group. The blue one is far less obvious.
If anyone wants to do this, I would increase the ratio of food coloring to water. Actually, I would just skip the water. Fill the entire vase full of food coloring and you might get a red flower one of these days. Or set up the experiment and then dip the flower in red dye at night, so that the flower changes color before
We did learn many things from this project, though:
- Red food coloring looks a lot like blood on a blond boy's hair. This causes much anxiety in the mother and much amusement for the boy.
- Red flowers are a lot easier to buy than to make.
- Queen Anne's Lace begins to make a mess all over the table after only one day in the water.
Now I'm off to concoct another project. Maybe one that will actually work this time!
2 comments:
Oh fun! We've done this with carnations. And celery. Try it sometime with a limp stalk of celery and some blue coloring. The ends of the leaves will turn blue, and if you cut a cross-section of the stalk, you can see the xylem - the tubes the water goes up :0)
Julie
I'll have to try celery! Oh, xylem and phloem. It's been a while, but the old brain is still working a little (high school biology, come back to me)!
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