Water is one of the most important things on Earth. Nothing that is alive can live without water. We drink water. It's in our food. It's in our air. It is vital (that means VERY important) that we have water that we can drink safely and use safely to water our crops. If our water is polluted, it can make us sick and kill plants and animals. This activity shows how easily pollution can get into water, our food, and us!

You will need

• A glass
• Tap water
• Red or blue food coloring.
• A knife (get your parents or teacher to help you use the knife)
• A stick of fresh celery with the leaves still on it

Here's what you do.

1. Fill the glass with tap water.
2. Add two or three drops of food coloring. Notice how it spreads through the water. Pollution spreads through water just like the food coloring does.
3. Wash the piece of celery. Leave the leaves on.
4. Being very careful, use the knife (or get your parents or teacher to do this) and cut off the bottom of the celery.
5. Put the celery in the glass filled with colored water.
6. Let the celery stalk sit there for at least three or four hours; you can even leave it overnight.
7. When the time has passed, take the celery stalk out of the water.
8. Use the knife (remember to get help from your parents or teacher) and cut a slice off the bottom of the stalk.
9. Do this several times.

Questions to Answer

• How long did you leave the celery stalk in the water?

• Before you took the celery stalk out of the water, what did it look like?

• When you sliced off pieces from the celery stalk, what did you find?

• The food coloring is like pollution that gets into the water. If the food coloring moved all the way up into the celery stalk, what would happen if there was pollution in the water instead of food coloring?

• What does this tell you about polluted water?

• How can we change what we do with packaging and trash to make things better for the Earth?