CELL TONICITY

Scenario
A 58-year-old male patient has been admitted to HASPI Hospital with
severe dehydration due to constant vomiting and diarrhea for the past 3
days. The first thing the hospital staff needs to do for this patient is
administer fluids intravenously, but the patient is demanding he only be
given “pure” water, and is refusing any other IV fluids.
You are responsible for patient education at HASPI Hospital. In order to get
the patient to agree to be administered the 0.9% saline IV fluids he needs
to rectify his dehydration, you must first educate him on what will happen
if he exposes his cells to “pure” water.

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You have tried to explain cell tonicity, but the patient has demanded that you “show him,
not tell him.” The only items you have found in the break room kitchen that can help you
demonstrate this concept is a knife/scalpel, cups/beakers, raw potatoes, water, and salt.
You also have weighing boats, a balance scale, and a ruler you can use.

DIRECTIONS:
Your job is to create an experiment using only the listed items to MEASURABLY
demonstrate what will happen when the potato cells are exposed to an isotonic,
hypotonic, and hypertonic solution in order to “show” the patient what will happen to
his cells if he is given “pure” water by IV.

ITEMS YOU CAN USE:

KNIFE/SCALPEL CUPS/BEAKERS (UP TO 5)
WATER BALANCE SCALE
POTATO RULER
SALT

EXPERIMENT REQUIREMENTS:
1. You must record your experiment steps.
2. You must record exact amounts.
3. You must record your results in a DATA TABLE and/or GRAPH.
4. You must MEASURABLY demonstrate at least one ISOTONIC, HYPOTONIC and HYPERTONIC solution.
5. You must be able to explain how your results PROVE that giving pure water by IV would be harmful to
the patient.
RECORD THE FOLLOWING ON A SEPARATE PAPER:
A. Experiment steps (include exact amounts and measurements)
B. Data Table (summary of your results)
C. Explain how your experiment demonstrates each of the following solutions:
Isotonic Solution, Hypotonic Solution Hypertonic Solution
D. Patient Explanation. Explain how your results prove that pure water by IV could be harmful,
and even possibly deadly.
E. Hard copy must contain your Title Page (experiment title, Subject, Class Schedule, Section, Names,
Teacher), Background, Results and Discussion

THIS PERFORMANCE TASK WILL BE GRADED ACCORDING TO THE EXPERIMENT TECHNIQUES USED,
NEATNESS OF THE OUTPUT, CLARITY OF THE VIDEO, AND RELEVANCE OF YOUR EXPLANATION.
VIDEO = 20 POINTS
HARD COPY OUTPUT = 30 POINTS
TOTAL = 50 POINTS

SUBMIT YOUR RECORDED VIDEO OF YOUR EXPERIMENT TO YOUR INSTRUCTOR ON OR BEFORE THE
DEADLINE FOR A BONUS POINTS TOGETHER WITH YOUR HARD COPY.
Two solutions are separated by a semi-permeable membrane. Solution A has a 10%
concentration of sugar and solution B has a 40% concentration of sugar. What direction would
you expect the water to move, from A to B or from B to A? What is this process called? The
solution will always move down the concentration gradient. This means
that the water will always move from where there is more water to where
there is less water. This diffusion of water is called osmosis. 

Hypotonic is a term that applies to the solution that contain less solute
(and more water) than the other to which it is being compared.
Hypertonic is the solution that contains more solute (and less water).

Thus, moving down the concentration gradient can also mean that the
water moves from the hypotonic solution towards the hypertonic
solution. 

If a cell is placed in a solution that is hypertonic in comparison to it, then

it shrink because the water will leave the cell. If a cell is placed in a
hypotonic solution in comparison to it, then the cell will lyse (burst)
because the water will quickly fill the cell. The picture accessed via
this hyperlink depicts this concept nicely. 

If two solutions are isotonic, then they have the same concentration. The
water will move at an equal rate between two isotonic solution. Thus, no
swelling or shrinking will occur