Effects of Water Pollution on Plants

Name ______________________________
 

Purpose: To see if pollution in water will affect plants.
 

Hypothesis: What do you think will happen to the leaves and veins of the celery when placed in polluted water?
 

Materials:

Procedure:
  1. Fill each Mason jar half full with water.
  2. In one jar add four drops of red food coloring.
  3. In one jar add four drops of blue food coloring.
  4. In one jar do not add any food coloring. This is the control sample. You will compare the other two celery stalks to the one left in the plain water.
  5. Cut about 1 inch of the end of the celery off.
  6. Place one stalk into each of the three jars of water.
  7. For one week, observe the leaves and stalk veins of the celery every day. You are looking for a change in coloring the leaves and veins.* In order to see the veins, you may need to break off a piece of the stem and look at a cross-section of the stem.
  8. Record your results by filling in the chart.
Observations:
Compare the control celery's leaves and veins to those of the polluted plants or changes in color and firmness.
 
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7
Plain Water
Leaves
             
Plain Water
Veins
             
Red Water
Leaves
             
Red Water
Veins
             
Blue Water
Leaves
             
Blue Water
Veins
             

Conclusion: Summarize your results. State whether or not your hypothesis was correct or incorrect and why.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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