Internal Assessment

Laboratory Guidelines on Osmosis

“Investigate the effect of changing sugar concentration on osmosis in potato”

Overview:

The movement of substances in and out of the cell is essential in maintaining life’s vital
functions. This transport enables a cell to absorb nutrients, remove excretory wastes
and exchange respiratory gases. Some substances move without a need for energy
while some can only be transported across the membrane if there is an expenditure of
energy. The passive transport (without energy requirement) of materials between the
cells and their aqueous environment across a concentration gradient is a very common
and efficient mechanism. This is called diffusion. Osmosis is a special type of this
passive transport wherein water moves along the concentration gradient through a
semipermeable membrane.

In this investigation, you will investigate how varied sugar concentration will affect
osmosis in potato blocks.

Hypothesis: If there is a higher concentration of sucrose in a solution, the mass of the

potato core will decrease and water will move out of it.

Variables:
  Independent- The concentration of sucrose in the different solutions 
 Dependent- The mass of the potato cores (if water moves out, mass will go
down) 
 Controlled- Amount of solution in a beaker, Length and size of potato cores,
water (as solvent) 

Materials:
 2 cm x 2 cm Potato blocks (3 per solution) 
 Sucrose solutions (1 gram, 5 grams, 10 grams, 15 grams, 25 grams) 
 Distilled water 
 Digital beam balance 
 Plastic weighing tray 
 Plastic cups (5) 
 1 (100mL) Graduated cylinder 
 Masking tape 
 1 Marking pen 

1
Procedure:
1. Measure 2 cm x 2 cm blocks of potato. Weigh each potato block. Record your
data.
2. Prepare a sucrose-water solutions with varying sucrose concentrations (1 g, 5 g,
10 g, 15 g, 20 g). Put the solutions in containers big enough to contain the potato
blocks.
3. Immerse the potato blocks in the solution for 10 minutes.
4. Weigh the potato blocks. Record your data.
5. Determine the % change in mass using the formula:

Final mass – initial mass

Initial mass x 100%

Important Notes:

1. Only the Analysis and Evaluation part of the IA will be graded in this laboratory
investigation.

2. We discussed in class how substances move across a semipermeable membrane.

We also discussed that the extracellular fluid has substances in various
concentrations as well as different environmental conditions which may affect how
water moves across the plasma membrane. You will then carry out an investigation
on the effect of solute concentration in osmosis in a potato block.

3. Prepare photographs of your set-up as part of your documentation.

4. The rubrics (for Analysis and Evaluation) to use are in the IA Guide in Managebac.

5. Submit separately the written report for ANALYSIS and EVALUATION to

Turnitin on or before December 11, 2016.