Photo & Video of Our Plant Science Experiments

We wrapped up our plants / gardening unit study with SLC on Monday and will be continuing lots of learning on this theme throughout the fall. Noah visited the garden shop with me over the weekend, and we transplanted some of our new seedlings. Today we'll be harvesting eggplant, trimming the herbs and checking on all our new additions.

Monday's class focused on osmosis and how plants use water. It was full of great experiments including the one pictured above that is a great way for the kids to see how plants transport water using their stems. Each child received a white flower in a cup of colored water. As the water is drawn up through the stem, the petals will turn the color of the water. Ava's flower is already starting to turn blue, but we're still waiting on Noah's to turn red. We did this experiment at home a year or so ago, and it took longer for the lighter colors to become visible.

Another experiment that the kids (and adults) all loved was the one in the video below. After explaining how a flower's petals close up when it doesn't have water and re-open when it receives water, the kids all colored their own paper flower, placed it in a shallow dish of water and . . . well, you'll see. It was pretty amazing!

My little botanists have loved learning more about plants, and we may follow up our studies with a field trip to EPCOT to see the hydroponic gardens sometime soon.