Do you remember doing science experiments at school when you were a child? Maybe the experiments were your favorite part of science class!

Most children enjoy doing science experiments. And there are lots of simple, safe experiments you can do at home with your kids. Here's a classic experiment that you may remember — "The Magic Rose," which demonstrates how some plants use water.

To do "The Magic Rose," you'll need a small glass (or vase), at least one small bottle of food coloring (find this in the cake mix aisle of the grocery store, near the spices), water and a white rose. It's best if the rose is just beginning to open and has not yet fully blossomed. Be sure the rose has its stem. If the stem has thorns, you may want to remove these ahead of time. (And if you have an old white shirt around the house, it makes a great "lab coat" for your junior scientist.)

Fill the glass to its halfway point with water. Ask your child to add 10–15 drops of food coloring to the water in his or her glass. If you have several different bottles of food coloring, it's fun to experiment with mixing colors.

Use scissors carefully to cut about two inches off the bottom of the rose's stem at a 45-degree angle. Put the rose in the glass so it can "drink" the colored water. Leave it there overnight.

What will your child find the next day? The rose isn't white — it's tinted with the color from the water. Look carefully, and you'll see darker streaks of the color, running through the rose's petals. Those streaks mark the path of the rose's vascular system, the "highway" that carries water and nutrients throughout the plant.

What else has a vascular system? That's right — the human body. Our circulatory system is a vascular system. The blood in our circulatory system carries oxygen and nutrients to every cell in our bodies, just like the water in the rose's vascular system carries the dye through the stem to the blossom.

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center hosts DESTINY Days this summer on June 20, July 11, Aug. 1 and Aug. 8, 2008. From 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on each DESTINY Day, you can climb aboard a bus outfitted as a mobile science laboratory and sample all kinds of science activities, from using EKG sensors to extracting DNA from a strawberry!

For more information, visit the DESTINY Days page on MPSC's Web site.

Every Thursday, a rotating group offers ways to play with your kids. 

Check out our other daily themes at TriangleMom2Mom:

MONDAY: Meet!
TUESDAY: Ask!
WEDNESDAY: Eat!
THURSDAY: Play!
FRIDAY: Out!

WEEKEND: Relax!