100 Days of Science #36: Plants Breathe Experiment
We've always heard that plants use water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide to make their food and that they give off oxygen, but we can't really see that oxygen they give off... until now!
We did a super fun and simple science experiment a few weeks ago that allowed us to see all the air bubbles that plants give off as they're making their food. Granted I can't test it to be sure it's oxygen but thankfully my kids didn't question that.
We picked two leaves; roughly the same size and shape from the same tree. We needed leaves that would fit flat across the top of our glasses and we had a tree nearby that was just perfect.
We filled our cups with cool water and gently laid our leaves on top.
Then we set one leaf in a dark cabinet (with the door shut!) for a minimum of an hour.
And set the other glass out in a sunny window. Our day wasn't as sunny as I would have liked for this experiment so when we checked our leaves after an hour and didn't see a huge difference we let them both sit in the dark and light for another hour.
The leaf that was in the sun begins to have air bubbles all around it!
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| And on the sides of the glass too |
We even lifted the glasses up to see underneath the leaves and still noticed that the sunlit leaf had way more air bubbles than the one in the dark cabinet.
The leaf in the cabinet wasn't making nearly as much food without the sunlight and therefor doesn't give off oxygen.
Pretty neat!
Others in this series:
1. Bernoulli's Principle
2. Ecotarium Trip
3. Air Molecule Experiment
4. Kitchen Science
5. Corn Maze Field Trip
6. Birds of Florida
7. Making Static Music
8. Un-Make It Monday
9. Wind Tunnel Experiment
10. Biomes Field Trip
11. Disappearing Coin Trip
12. Snuffing out a Candle With Baking Soda
13. Making Plastic from Milk
14. Friction Experiment
15. & 16. Snow Experiments
17. Making an Iceberg
18. Floating Eggs
19. Pond Water Under a Microscope
20. Planting Eco Plant Pals
21. & 22. Cotton Candy Experiments
23. Springfield Science Museum Trip
24. Signs of Spring
25. Color Changing Slime
26. Growing Our Own Tickle Plants
27. Learning About Soil Sampling
28. Making Bouncy Balls
29. Exploring the Shoreline
30. Color Changing Flowers
31. Roger Williams Zoo Trip
32. Edible Silly Putty
33. Raising Tadpoles
34. More Microscope Fun
35. Homemade Ice Cream
43. Volcanic Lemons
47 & 48. Building Model Molecules Two Ways
54. Flouride and Calcium Experiment
55. Botanical Gardens in Winter
56. Making Cell Models
57. Which Has More Water; Ice or Snow?
58. Exploding Snow and Water Baggies
59. Exploring Minerals
60. Visiting the Hartford Science Museum
61-63. 3 STEM Bridge Challenges
64. Making Models of the Earth
65. Plate Techtonics with Graham Crackers
66. Homemade Lava Lamp
67. Science Movies We're Watching
68. Index Card Towers
69. Botany at the Botanical Gardens
70. Best Board Games for Science
71. Homemade Frozen Yogurt Pops
72. Starburst Rock Cycle
73. & 74. Sinking a Marshmallow
75. Jumping Conversation Hearts
76-78. Building a Paper Airplane 3 Ways
79. Learning About Hummingbirds
80. Planting an Herb Garden
81. Mushroom Spores
82. - 84. Penny Saturation Experiments
85. Sink or Float?
86. Disappearing Ink
87. Sedment Layer Jars
88. Tie Dye Science
89-91. DNA Experiments
92. Homemade Butter
93. Floating Marker Art
94. & 95. Oil Spills & Water Filtration
96.- 98. Making Rock Candy & Rock Candy Experiments
99. Rocket Science
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