STEAM Saturday – Color Changing Flowers! (5/18/2024)
Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to get outside and enjoy some of the beautiful spring weather in between rainy days. If you have, you may have noticed green plants and colorful flowers blooming up everywhere! Even though that rain stops us from getting outside to play, it is helping our beautiful flower friends to grow. Today, you and your future botanist will learn how flowers “drink” water when you do this easy and fun Color Changing Flowers experiment!
All plants require water to survive, but how do they get the water they need? The water is stored in the soil, and through a process called “capillary action,” water comes up through the roots and moves throughout the plant. Water cells stick together and to the cellulose tubes inside the plant. This helps force the water up from the ground and disperse it to all the different parts of the plant. The water then evaporates from the leaves of the plant, helping draw even more liquid up from the roots.
With today’s experiment, you’ll get to watch the process of capillary action with your very own eyes. When you place white flowers in colored water, as the water moves throughout the flowers and to the petals, the colored dye will move with it, changing the colors of the flowers!
Here’s what you’ll need for this eye-catching experiment:
- White flowers
- Liquid food coloring
- Clear jars (up to six if you want to create a flower rainbow)
Place approximately 6 ounces of water in each jar, then mix one color of food coloring into each jar. Make sure to use enough dye so that the colors are absorbed by your flowers … Use about half a container of dye to start with, and go from there. Cut the stems of your white flowers at an angle, then put flowers in each jar. Finally, place your flowers in a sunny spot in your house and wait for the magic to happen!
Within three days, you should see the flowers change colors. What colors do you see? Are they lighter or darker than you anticipated? Did the color start at the bottom of the petals, or the tips?
Check out the full experiment from STEAMsational HERE!
As always, get as creative as you want, and above all, have lots of fun learning together!
We’ll see you right back here next Saturday for another STEAM Saturday activity! Scroll through the rest of our website to learn how Critchlow Adkins is Building Brighter Futures for the children and families we serve!
