A project for the School Science Fair. Ali and Nellie decided to show how the water is transported in plants. They knew that the water absorbed by the roots go up through the xylem vessels come down through the phloem vessels. So they made a cut out of  a tree in plywood.They agreed to run the water using the siphon method. This is the method  used to empty fish tanks.

Fig. 1 .  They had to include bubbles to show the flow.

You fill a saline tube with water, insert one end to the fish tank and keep the other end below the water level. The water will go up the tube and come down. Unfortunately when they tried out they could not see the water flowing inside the tube.

They thought for a long time. Then Nellie came out with a wonderful idea. “ Make a hole in the tube”. They tried this out in their aquarium. In the tube they made an incision ( a hole) where the arrow is marked. It worked.  Silvery bubbles appeared to go through the tube. They screamed, laughed and they called their parents to see. On the back side of the ascending column they painted red to represent the xylem tubes and on the other they painted blue to show the phloem tissue.

 

 Fig.2  How they presented the item.
How they finally presented their item is given herel.   It was highly commended by the teachers and the visitors to the fair.

More Activities.

Just to enjoy this experiment you don’t need plywood cut outs and fish tanks. What you need are a basin of water and a saline tube. Dip one end of the tube into the water and suck through the other end and release. Keep the free end below the water level and let the water flow out. An opening can be made with a nail at  a place marked by the arrow.