Living science: An experiment to see leaves breathing

Plants breathe through their leaves, recycling carbon dioxide and turning it into food for themselves, and releasing oxygen for us. Your kid knows this by reading books. Now prove it to them by showing it through this experiment.  

What is needed for the experiment? 

You just need 5 everyday objects:  

Large live leaf. Pluck it from any leafy plant, but don’t take a yellowed or decayed one and don’t pick it p from the ground 

Clear glass or plastic bowl  

Water  

Small rock  

Magnifying glass  

Assemble these and call your kids to show the experiment or ask them to do it themselves.  

How to perform the experiment? 

Here’s a step by step guide:  

Ask your child to carefully observe the leaf. Do they see anything on it? The answer should be ‘no’ 

Get them to fill the bowl with room temperature water  

Ask your little scientist to place the leaf in the bowl of water 

Then ask them to place the small rock on top of the leaf to keep it submerged 

The bowl should be kept in a sunny spot  

After 2 to 3 hours, ask your child to look at the leaf through the magnifying glass 

Small bubbles have formed on the leaf and edges of the bowl. They just saw a leaf blow bubbles of air by breathing!  

Most kids are surprised by the effect, even if they know all about it from school books.  

What is learnt from the experiment? 

The submerged leaf used sunlight for the process of photosynthesis. They did it through their stomata. These terms are common in all biology text books for middle school children. But now they watched it come alive. Here are the terms defined again:  

Photosynthesis: The process plants use to make their own food, using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. 

Stomata: Tiny gaps or holes, mostly on the underside of leaves, used by plants for gas exchange. Carbon dioxide enters the plant through the stomata for photosynthesis and waste oxygen exits through the same openings.