Curling Dandelions

This curling dandelions experiment is great for all ages! I myself just found out about this and wish I knew this growing up. Let me show you how to do it.

Materials:

1. Container of water
2. Dandelions

Directions:

1. Start by splitting your dandelion’s stem in half. If you have thick dandelions – you could split it into 4!

2. Put them into your container of water – yellow side up. Now all you have to do is sit back and watch!

The stems will curl! How awesome is that?! Before we put ours into the water – we predicted what would happen, my kids came up with all sorts of ideas.

Reasons why I love this activity:

• It’s super simple to set up!
• I didn’t have to purchase any materials.
• It’s natures magic trick – my kids love it!
• Every time we get dandelions in the yard my kids are running around picking them now.

Here is a short tutorial video:

The science behind this activity:

• The outside of the dandelion stem is hydrophobic (it repels water). The cells that make up the inside of the stem absorb so much water that they swell up. The cells on the outside of the stem stay the same size though. The increasing size of the cells on the one side of the stem forces the stem into curls of various shapes.

I hope you & your kids have a fun time trying this curling dandelions experiment out!