Kids Experiments with Carrots
What can kids learn from experimenting with a carrot? Try these simple experiments.
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| Imprint | Make a Carrot Battery |
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Also, you must try Mr Carrot Head - Make a unique face to
keep! Click here. See the Carrot Toys page here. Kids Craft items here. More games and tricks on the Fun page here. Learn to draw a carrot here (Utube) Origami Carrot Watch a very simple instructional video here.
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1. Fun with Carrot Plants
(a) Windowsill Carrot Plant - Cut the top off a carrot leaving about 1/2 inch of the orange part
and the same amount of green stems if the carrot has already started sprouting
from the top. Press the carrot piece into damp sand or soil in a saucer or
bowl. J The carrot top in time might flower and it is very nice for beneficial insects and butterflies. Carrots are a biennial and will flower when they are 2 years old. The plant will eventually produce a flower and then seeds. If you are lucky the seeds will be viable and you can plant them in the ground to grow real carrots. Learn about carrot seeds here. THAT said, depending
on what variety your carrot is, it could grow the same type of carrot (from the
seeds) IF it is an open pollinated variety. If it is a hybrid variety (which a
lot of commercial carrots sold in the store are, often called "F1"), it has a
mixture of genes and you could get many which are different from each other, or
the seed could be sterile or very weak. Be aware that carrots can also cross with the weed
"Queen Anne's Lace".
2. Experiments
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Fun with Roots Experiment No1 - Get to the root What You Need: 3 Carrots; Sharp knife; Cutting board; Glass; Water; Red food colouring What You Do: 1. Fill a glass half full with water. 2. Cut the end tip off of a carrot. Ask an adult to help you! 3. Put the carrot in the glass of water. 4. Put the glass near a window that lets in sunshine. 5. Watch the carrot for a few days. What Is Happening The carrot itself is really what we call a "taproot." This is a big and main root that grows straight down into the ground. Along its sides, little roots grow, too. Some trees, plants and bushes have a major taproot; others do not. Roots are really important! They hold a plant in place when it is windy. They keep soil around the plant . And most of all, roots conduct water from the soil up to the plant. |
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Experiment No
2 -
Root
Fun No 2 - absorption 1. Repeat the first experiment with a new carrot, but this time put 10 drops of red food colouring into the glass of water. 2. Put the carrot in the water for several days. 3. Put the carrot on the cutting board and with the help of an adult, cut the carrot in half. Look inside. You will see red colouring in the tubes of the carrot that go from the bottom to the top of it. This shows you that water was being absorbed by the bottom or tip of the carrot and travelling up the inside of the carrot. This is how plants and trees get water from their roots. Experiment No 3 - Root cross section Repeat this same experiment as above but this time cut the carrot in a cross section. Then you can look at how the carrot is structured from that point of view. What Is Happening?
R Try steaming, baking or eating these taproots raw! As you think about plants that we eat, check out which veggies we eat that are the stem parts, the leaves, or the flowering part of the plant. Some plants, stems, roots, taproots and flowers are delicious! |
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What You
Need: Try this one as well: Colour the water with ink or food colouring. After the water has risen in the straw, cut the carrot in half. What do you see? Is the ink spread evenly throughout the carrot, or are there main veins? What could the other parts of the carrot be for? Are they coloured at all? Try putting limp carrot sticks in fresh water. What happens? How long does it take them to become to become stiff again?
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You should always "dig in" any giant vegetable deep with lots of organic matter, take extra care over feeding, watering and pest control and, if showing, harvest at the very last moment for freshness.
Fill a 6in-wide 4 foot long drainpipe with clean fine sand. (Always be optimistic). Make a hole in the sand with a long pole and fill it with good potting compost. Sow three seeds in the compost and thin to the best one when they have germinated.
Water from the top for the first two months and thereafter from the bottom to encourage the roots to seek out moisture. At harvest time wash out as much sand as possible using a hosepipe before very gently pulling up the carrot. If you pull too hard you may damage the long tapering root.
Here is an example of Hunkins fine work. For more examples see the web site. Click here.
 Make
a Carrot
Battery
This activity uses a common carrot and
two different metals to make a enough electricity to run a small digital
clock.
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Swallow a
Goldfish (trick) Swallowing a Live Goldfish! (The Secret).
You're not going to believe the method.
It's so ridiculous, but it works! What you need: |
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Which
floats Carrot or Apple?
Carrot Magic for
School Children |
History Wild Carrot Today Nutrition Cultivation Recipes Trivia Links Home Contact - SITE SEARCH
ust put a little water into the dish if sand/soil are not available.
Soon pretty leaves could appear and hey presto you have a nice plant to keep
at a window in bright light. The root will not regenerate itself. But if there
is enough of the root left, it is possible to plant it and get some foliage from it. 
adishes,
beets, turnips and parsnips are also taproots. You might want to get some of
these and cut them to see how they are made. It also is interesting that we eat
many taproots!
