Even when it’s slathered in peanut butter, celery can be a hard sell. It’s not exactly what you’d call a kid-friendly flavor, and despite its winning qualities (it’s rich in potassium, fiber, and antioxidants), that’s not always going to be enough for your child to suddenly grab a stalk and start chomping. If you have a whole head of celery that’s about to go bad in a few days, why not try the celery food coloring experiment, where your kid can see science come alive — and they won’t have to eat the veggie afterwards.
The celery food coloring experiment is popular among the preschool and elementary school-aged kids. It requires minimal ingredients — like food coloring, water, and you guessed it, celery — and is a no muss, no fuss kind of project.
So what is the celery food coloring experiment and how does it work? At its core, the goal is to explain the process of osmosis, which is basically how a plant absorbs and distributes water. But if you only use clear water, you won’t be able to see the intricate system of special tubes called xylem that aid in moving water to all parts of the plant.
And that’s where the food coloring comes in. After breaking off a few stalks from the head, cut about 1-2 inches off the bottom. Take four separate glasses and fill them with water. Add various colors of food coloring (note: darker colors are easier to see). The experiment truly puts patience to the test, since you probably won’t see results for at least a few hours, or even days. When you do, though, you’ll see that the celery leaves have ideally changed color to match the food coloring in the glasses.
Many kids get excited about how the celery “drinks” the water, and for the most part, that’s true. In order to have the best results, though, make sure that the stalk has lots of leaves so you can easily see them turn blue, purple, pink…whatever the food coloring is. The experiment should reach its peak by the second day, so after that, simply drain the water and toss the celery. Since it’s full of food dye, it really isn’t edible anymore.
The celery food dye experiment is a staple science project that’s easy to pull off with young kids. You’ll love spending time with your kids, they’ll love seeing celery stalks acting like straws, and mostly, that they won’t have to eat celery…at least for now.