THE SCIENCE LAB

Make & Do Activity Kit

Turning green plants red

Chlorophyll makes plants green, but not always! See how light of different wavelengths is absorbed and reected differently.

Time: Approximately 1 hour Difculty: Hints: The hot water steps of this experiment
should only be done by an adult.
a large handful of 1. Wash green leafy vegetables.

only step: Boil in 2. Adult water for 1 minute.

What you will need:

large handful of kale, spinach or any leafy green vegetable boiling water tongs a bowl vegetable oil blender black light a ne mesh strainer

only step: Using the 3. Adult tongs, take the leaves from the boiling water and place in the ice bath for 1 minute.

only step or under 4. Adult supervision: Place the leaves into the blender. Add oil and blend into a thin liquid. the green oil through 5. Strain a ne mesh strainer. If you cant get the leafy bit out, you can squeeze it through an old tea towel or fabric. chlorophyll is now 6. The infused in the oil. Shine you U.V torch on to the chlorophyll. Note that this works best in a very dark room.
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THE SCIENCE LAB

Make & Do Activity Kit

Turning green plants red

Page 2

What else can I do? Whats going on?

Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in plants. Boiling the leaves helps allow the chlorophyll to be extracted from the cells. The chlorophyll dissolves in the oil. Chlorophyll is a pigment that absorbs all wavelengths of visible light except green. This is why plants appear green. Green plants reect green light which makes them appear green. The same does not hold true for ultra violet light like that produced by a black light. The chlorophyll absorbs the UV light and uoresces a red color. Fluorescence only occurs while the UV light is on. Once you turn it off, the chlorophyll will reect green light again. 1. You could use this space to draw the colours of your experiment plants with and without U.V lights. 2. Imagine if you only saw the world through U.V light. What would your dinner or garden or local park or street look like?

500 Harris St Ultimo PO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238 Australia

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 2.5 License.