Info
| Explore | We know that plants use photosynthesis to get food/energy. We conducted a number of experiments with celery before this final research question (see our photos and posts below). |
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| Research Question | How can we make celery bend with salt? |
| Predictions | Fully in water - I think it will bend a lot because in previous experiments only the bits in water have bent. 1mL salt - I think it will bend considerably, but I also think it might shrivel like the 30g salt one did, but I am not sure. 8 and 14 mL salt - I think it might work really good... |
| Experimental Design | We put celery in different solutions and wrote down the results of day 1. To start the length of all the celery was 15cm and the width was 1cm (omitting results from 6g salt because size was not constant). There was 100mL of water in the same size beakers. The independent variable was the... |
| Conclusion | By the end of our experiment we realized that when you put celery in salty water you have to balance out the water and the salt. If there is too much salt it becomes really flexible and stringy so the ones with lower/more balanced salt bent more. In the results photo, you can see that the 1mL... |
| About this Project | This group had a fantastic attitude toward their project and toward learning in general. Their communication with their mentor was great and they made observations that were equally astute and amusing. They seemed genuinely invested and driven (especially for their age group) and I thoroughly... |
Updates
Final experiment day 1 data table with predictions.
Final experiment day 1 set-up.
Final experiment, photo of after (Day 5) of 0mL, 1mL, 2mL, 4ml, 8mL, 10ml, and 14mL of salt.
From Jenn: We measured salt using a graduated cylinder. 1mL water = 1g water, but doesn't quite work for salt.
Kieran and Koi worked hard to update the project, and then the changes didn’t save on the site :(. I typed their last message as they dictated and just uploaded their last data and photos. I will make sure they see any last messages you send. Thanks!
Thank you, Jenn! So cool.
Best,
James
Kieran and Koi finally had a chance to re-type their final results today into the Info section - they dictated and I typed!
Thank you for being our mentor we really learned a lot during this experience of trying to make celery bend and doing a lot of experiments. The salt shriveled the celery because the water escaped the celery because it wanted to even out. In the control (water) the celery bent and the mass went up. It always bent over the white part (inside) because the green part is stronger.
Good morning, all,
You are very welcome. I had a lot of fun working with you on the celery, and I am glad you figured out what was happening. Kieran and Koi, I hope you are excited about the scientific process and that you will keep learning about plants! Thank you for your excellent work and for putting up with me as your mentor.
Best of luck,
James
Good morning, Kieran and Koi,
I hope you had nice weekends. I have a couple of questions. First, have you put all of your results in one place so that you can more easily compare what happened to the celery stalks in each treatment? Second, have you noticed a difference in which way the celery bends? That is, as a celery stalk has both a concave side and a convex side, towards which side does the stalk bend in water compared to, for example, in 30g/100 mL salt water? Does it always bend to one side?
Happy Monday,
James
On Friday we setup glass jars all full with 150 ml of water the I set up the one with the flour and the heat lamp while koi setup the control. For the flour we had added 20 ml of flour I think over the weekend all of the flour had settled it and it looks unsettling obviously the flour had added more so instead of 150 or lower the flour one is at around 160 ml. It kinda seems like what happened to the salt I think the flour got into the flour and it’s clogging the pipes so it looks like at the top of the celery it’s a little deflated.
The flour didn’t curve that much but it did a little bit in fact it curved around 15 degrees but at the start it looked the same and I didn’t think it curved at all.
For the other celery on Friday we did the same as the control but we put it under a heat lamp so the celery is pretty warm it seems as though it got bent in the middle about right over the top of the cup it was in almost like the exposed parts of the celery were the vulnerable parts and the half of the celery that was in the water was safe pretty much. The celery is very dried out shriveled at the top almost like the water is getting sucked out.
The heat lamp celery didn’t curve at all it only looks like it snapped in half and A LOT of the water evaporated around 50 ml which is pretty cool.
It didn't look like it snapped just like it got pinched a lot in the middle. Also capitalize my name next time Kieran!!! ( or my name just looks like the type of fish...)
Responses: Jenn: Not really. it wasn't bent at the start of the experiment. James: 1. probably something other than water but what??? 2. Evaporation!!!
So the water/ control (C) was in water... sooo... yup. I think it looks about the same today I guess?
It's pretty solid but the skin is peeling off at the bottom for some reason? It bent 30 degrees but still VERY solid!!! The flour is WEIRD but more on that in Kieran's eval.
Measurements: 15cm long, 2cm wide, 24.94 in mass and the water is 120ml
So is it the same if it bent 30 degrees and is very solid? How do those measurements compare with your intitial measurements?
30 degrees is a lot!
Do you think the fluid in the celery's cells is pure water or something else?
The flour test is a cool idea and you have an interesting hypothesis for why the top of the stalk wilted. Can you think of why the heat lamp might have caused the water to leave the top of the celery (and the beaker)?
Oof! the salty solutions bent a lot but the water looks only a bit flimsy. I think they got smaller because the weight went with the water???
Kieran: Thank you for the info and details! We will try to learn more.
Dear Kieran and Koi,
I hope you had good days at school. Your class came up with some great questions about water transport in plants. A useful thing to know for some of the questions is that molecules of water "like" to be next each other more than they "like" being next to other substances, such as air. This characteristic of water molecules (called "cohesion") is super important for life, and thinking about it will help you understand how many things on our planet work (including how plants bring water to their leaves, why the bugs called water striders can skate around on the surface of a pond even though they're denser than water), and why your swim goggles fog up).
Think about what forces act on water molecules in the tree's water pipes (the xylem). What is "trying" to pull them down? What happens to water molecules at the openings on the leaf (the stomata)? What forces might pull water molecules up the tree?
[If you're interested in why water molecules "like" to stick together (to "cohere"), it has to do with the way the atoms (the two hydrogens and one oxygen in"H2O") share their electrons...]
Please ask me any questions you have, and I will do my best to answer them (or point you in the right direction!).
Happy Thursday,
James
Kieran: the water celery or the celery that was in water looks about the same as it started but just a bit bendier it also got a little smooshy at the tip of the stock of celery but overall it looks about the same. The 2g salt was way bendier then the water one it was very flexible little stretchy and smooshy Koi: the 30g salt is very bendy it's very puckered And it died!!:( there is no life left in it !!! - kieran and Koi :p
Wow—the celery petioles had a rough night! 30 grams of salt is a lot in 100 mL of water. For comparison, the sea has about 35 grams of salt per 1000 mL (this is mostly the same kind of salt you're using, although there's a mix): this means your salt solution is almost nine times saltier than the ocean!
Do you have any ideas why the stalk's mass and size decreased?
James
Hello, Koi and Kieran,
I hope you are having a nice morning. Feel free to use "he/his/him" for me.
Do you have any updates on your celeries?
Happy Wednesday,
James
P.S.: I usually go by "James." "Paul" is my middle name!
sorry I forgot for some reason!:( Koi
Day one models of how plants transport water.
I appreciate the both the close-up of the leaf showing the stoma and the tall plant in its ecological context!
Group experiment (on red tray) and Jenn’s duplicate experiment (on teal tray).
Koi: nice to meet you Paul and Cael! By the way Paul I didn't get your pronouns...
Hi everyone! My name is Cael and I'm the "liaison" for this group. I also use they/them :') You won't hear from me much here, but I wanted to introduce myself in case you were wondering who this random extra person was. I am a graduate student at Northwestern University where I am studying carnivorous plants. I also like drawing, as well as hiking and making pottery. I am mostly here to make sure everything is going well with communications between your mentor and your teacher. James will be the one to talk to about your experiments but I'm happy to meet you all too!
It is nice to meet you, Cael. We have a couple carnivorous plants in our research greenhouses, and they are a lot of fun. They help us keep the populations of fungus gnats under control! Thank you for working with us.
James
Koi: By the way is anyone else in the project?
Hi from Kieran and Koi! ( we are sharing a laptop for a bit. ) Paul, here's our answers to your question. Koi: not that i can think of at the moment. Kieran: not really. ( Koi: i am sneakily using a custom cursor that is a donut and coffee cursor)
Good morning, Kieran and Koi,
I am happy to meet you both! Many of my best friends also enjoy donuts. I love to read, and I used to draw a lot when I was your age. Now I have started to draw again to make illustrations of plants for some of my lab's publications! I also like fishing.
My professor and I study interesting little plants called hornworts (they are very different from celery...). You may have heard about stomata, the holes in the celery leaf that take in carbon dioxide and let out water. The evaporation of water from the leaves pulls water up from the plant's roots so that the whole plant can be hydrated. Hornworts have stomata, too, but they are mostly for drying out the plant so that it can release its spores!
My favorite part of science is observing nature in the field. I am lucky to work at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, because I can go out during my lunch break and see different species of trees and shrubs that come from around the world (along with the birds and pollinating insects, too!).
I read a description of a celery project—it looks like a fun way to explore the scientific method! I am sure we will learn a lot about how and why celery bends.
To start, in life or your research, have you come across any background information about plants that you think would be useful as you design your experiment? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Best,
James
Donuts are awesome.
Hi I'm Koi and I'm a student at Roeper Lower School. I like to draw and I am in 5th grade. I use they/ them pronouns and I like donuts ( hence the team name.) I want to learn as much about celery bending as I can. But enough about me. What's your favorite thing to do as a scientist?
Hi, I'm Kieran a student of Roeper I'm hoping to learn as much as I can about bending celery and doing activities, I like drawing and reading what kind of things do you like to do or what do you study.