Osmosis Lab

Lindsey Williams
Honors Biology Period 3
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic
2 May 2018
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 2

Introduction

There are many different forms of transport across a membrane, and the simplest of them is

passive transport. Passive Transport is a type of transport that does not require the cell to use any

energy and involves a substance diffusion down its concentration gradient across a membrane.

(Khan Academy 3). Cell membranes are also selectively permeable which means that the cell

membrane controls what can and cannot be distributed through the cell wall, as well as how

much of each substance can be submitted in the cell at a given time. For instance, how much

water can be inserted into the cell going from a high concentration to a low concentration.

Having a selectively permeable cell membrane is going to control how much water is ample

without it being excessively over abundant. Osmosis is the net movement of water across a

semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute

concentration” (Eric Kramer). When too much water enters into the cell, it is referred to as a

hypotonic environment which can lead to the cell burst if there is too much water in the cell. A

perfectly regulated cell is when it contains an isotonic environment which is when there is equal

concentration of solute on the inside and outside of the cell. A hypertonic cell is a cell that has

more water on the outside of the cell membrane than it does on the inside, so it reacts by

shriveling up due to a lack of water. Osmosis is strictly important to understand for real world

purposes because of extremely important functions in our bodies such as sweating. The primary

role of sweating is to aid in the regulation of temperature of our body by evaporating water from

the surface of our skin through sweat glands. Through the process of osmosis, our sweat glands

are able to extract a tiny bit of salt from our blood. A passage of water is required to ease out the

difference in concentration. Once that additional water through osmosis passes into the surface of

our skin, evaporation then helps us to maintain the proper temperature control in our bodies.
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 3

Dialysis tubing is the act of separation between the smaller molecules from larger molecules in

solution by selective diffusion through a semipermeable membrane. (Ian Rosenberg). Testing

dialysis tubing is very helpful to determine how different chemicals act towards solutions. For

part one of the lab, three purposes were to learn how to create dialysis tubing, and how the

dialysis tubing was affecting by being put into the beakers, and why the weight of the dialysis

tubing changed with the different percentage of starch solutions. For part two of the lab three

purposes was to notice the beaker filled with water changed to a yellowish color, the bag of

starch changed to a deep purple, and how the iodine was not able to move across the membrane

into the starch. The set up for would be how bag 1 was filled with water and then placed in the

beaker full of water, then bag 2 is filled with 20% of starch solution and then placed in the

beaker with water, then bag 3 is filled with 40% starch solution and then placed in the beaker of

water, then bag 4 is filled with 60% starch solution and then placed in the beaker of water, then

bag 5 is filled with water and then placed in the beaker filled with 60% glucose, and lastly, bag 6

is filled with 80% starch solution and then placed in the beaker filled with 60% glucose. The

dependent variable for part 1 is the mass of the bag after it’s taken out of each beaker, the

independent variable would be the type of osmotic variable the bags were placed in. The

dependent variable for part 2 would be the color change of the water inside the beaker, and the

independent would be the placement of the starch inside the bag. The constants for part one was

the weighing of the bags, the time increments, the drying of the bags, and the time the bags were

placed back into the solutions. The control for the first part was the water in the water solution,

while the experimental groups were the water in 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 60% solution bag in

the 80% solution. For part two our control was the initial set up of the starch baggie in the iodine

water solution, where the starch was white, and the water was yellow. Our experimental group
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 4

was the final look at the beaker where the water was clear, and the baggie of starch was purple.

The constants for part two were the amounts of iodine in the solution, what was in our bag and

when we washed off the baggies before placing them in our solution. The hypothesis for part 1 is

if you change the percentage of starch solution then the weight of the bag will change

correspondingly. The hypothesis for part 2 is if you add 20 drops of iodine to the water, then the

iodine will change the color of the water and also move across the membrane.

Materials

 6 beakers

 20% glucose solution

 40% glucose solution

 60% glucose solution

 80% glucose solution

 Pipets

 Water

 Paper towels

 Dialysis tubing

 String

 Timer

 A Scale

 Iodine

 Starch

 Graduated cylinders

 Plastic spoons
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Procedures

(Part one)

1. Get 6 pieces of dialysis tubing that were soaking in water. Fold one end down hamburger

style about 1cm down the dialysis tubing, then fold the little fold you made hotdog style,

then fold that same fold hamburger style once again.

2. Once you have your tubing folded three times on one end have your partner tie a knot on

the end of the tubing in the center of those folds. Once you tie this knot with your string

tie a few more knots for safe measure, trim the end of the extra string.

3. Opening the other end of the tubing

4. fill the baggies half way up using the following solutions:

a. 2 baggies half full of water

b. 1 baggie half full of 20% glucose solution

c. 1 baggie half full of 40% glucose solution

d. 1 baggie half full of 60% glucose solution

e. 1 baggie half full of 80% glucose solution

5. Once you fill up these baggies tie off the open end the exact same way you tied off the

previous end. Once all the bags are tied off place them on numbered paper towels in the

order you put them in the table

6. Weigh each of the baggies 1 by 1 and record the weights in your table

7. Get 5 beakers and fill them up with the following solutions

a. 4 beakers full of room temp. Water

b. 1 beaker full of room temp 60% solution

8. Once you have your beakers set up, get a timer and get a 3-minute timer set
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 6

9. Place the baggies in the solutions as following

a. 1 water bag in a water beaker

b. 1 20% bag in a water beaker

c. 1 40% bag in a water beaker

d. 1 60% bag in a water beaker

e. 1 water in the 60% beaker and 1 80% bag in the same 60% beaker

10. After 3 minutes pull the baggies out, carefully roll them around on a paper towel to get

the excess water off, and then weigh all the baggies and record the data

11. Once the baggies are weighed place them back into the same solution they were in for

another 3-minutes

12. After 3 minutes dry the baggie and weigh it again

13. Repeat this once more and continue to record the data

(Part Two)

1. Take a completely clean beaker and fill it up half way with water

2. Repeat the process of folding the tube

3. Once you have your tubing folded three times on one end have your partner tie a knot on

the end of the tubing in the center of those fold. Once you tie this knot with your string tie

a few more knots for safe measure, and trim off the extra string.

4. Take your stimulated cell full of starch powder and place it into the beaker

5. Drop in 20 drops of iodine into the beaker

6. Let it sit

7. After a few days observe the color change

Results
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 7

Part 1:

Table 1: Mass of the bag vs. Time

Bag 1 Bag 2 Bag 3 Bag 4 Bag 5 Bag 6

(Water in (20% bag (40% bad (60% bag (Water in (80% bag
water) in water) in water) in water) 60% in 60%
solution) solution)
Beginning 5.0g 5.7g 6.1g 5.3g 5.9g 5.6g
Mass (g)
Mass 5.0g 6.2g 6.0g 5.6g 6.0g 5.2g
After 3
minutes
(g)
Mass +0.0g +0.5g -0.1g +0.3g +0.1g -0.4g
change
from 0-3
minutes
(g)
Mass after 5.0g 6.7g 6.3g 5.9g 6.0g 4.9g
6 minutes
(g)
Mass +0.0g +0.5g +0.3g +0.3g +0.0g -0.3g
change
from 3-6
minutes
(g)
Mass after 5.0g 7.2g 6.6g 6.2g 6.0g 5.5g
9 minutes
(g)
Mass +0.0g +0.5g +0.3g +0.3g +0.0g +0.6g
change
from 6-9
minutes
(g)
Table 1: This table shows the difference in weight corresponding with the time change,
and the degree of osmosis throughout the time alteration. We used the numbers from the
different groups and took the average from the data.
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Figure 1: Mass of the bag vs. Time

2000
Concentration Gradient in Water

1500

1000
Mass (Millograms)

500

0
1 2 3 4 5

-500

-1000

Time (Mintes)
Water in Water 20% in Water 40% in Water 60% in Water Water in 60% Water in 80%

Part 2:

Color of the bag of starch

Before the bag was dropped into the iodine The starch was white when it was put in the
water solution bag
One day after the bag was dropped in the After 1 day of the starch being in the bag
iodine water solution iodine water solution, the bag starch was
purple and the water had a yellowish tint
Table 2: This table shows our results from leaving the bag of starch in the iodine water solution.

Before we put the bags in the solution the weights of the bags read as followed; Bag 1

weighed 5.0g, Bag 2 weighed 5.7g, Bag 3 weighed 6.1g, Bag 4 weighed 5.3g, Bag 5 weighed
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 9

5.9g, Bag 6 weighed 5.6g. After the bags being in the beakers for 3 minutes the weights read the

following; Bag 1 weighed 5.0g, Bag 2 weighed 6.2g, Bag 3 weighed 6.0g, Bag 4 weighed 5.6g,

Bag 5 weighed 6.0g, Bag 6 weighed 5.2g. The total mass changes for each bag from 0-3 minutes

read as the following; Bag 1 +0.0g, Bag 2 +0.5g, Bag 3 -0.1g, Bag 4 +0.3g, Bag 5 +0.1g, Bag 6 -

0.4g. After the baggies being in the solutions for 6 minutes the weights read as the following;

Bag 1 5.0g, Bag 2 6.7g, Bag 3 6.3g, Bag 4 5.9g, Bag 5 6.0g, Bag 6 4.9g. The mass change from

3-6 minutes read as the following; +0.0g, +0.5g, +0.3g, +0.3g, +0.0g, -0.3g. After the baggies

were in the solutions for 9 minutes the mass of the baggies read as the following; 5.0g, 7.2g,

6.6g, 6.2g, 6.0g, 5.5g. The mass change from 6-9 minutes then read as the following; +0.0g,

+0.5g, +0.3g, +0.3g, +0.0g, +0.6g. For part two of the experiment, the observation at the

beginning of the lab was that the starch in the bag was white, and the water/iodine mixture inside

the bag had a slight yellow tint due to the color of the iodine. At the end of the Lab the

observation of the beaker was that the starch in the bag was purple or dark blue, and the

water/iodine solution was completely clear to the naked eye.

Discussion

The tested bags had a different mass after each time interval. The concentration gradient

was the key factor to the difference in weight between the recorded times. In passive transport

molecules tend to move to a lower concentration gradient. As the cell moves closer to

equilibrium the rate of osmosis decreases and at one point it becomes stable. The concentration

gradient can also effect the rate of osmosis. When there is a higher concentration gradient at the

beginning it could easily have a greater change in mass but by the end of the data testing the rate

should appear constant. This most likely occurred because when you put something immediately

into a hypertonic or hypotonic environment the molecules tend to react quickly and try to meet
 Diffusion Through Cell Membrane 10

equilibrium as soon as it can. There was one error in this pattern because the water in water bag

did not lose or gain any weight throughout the entire experiment. The reason this may have

occurred is because the same solution was inside and outside of the dialysis tubing. The 80

percent bag in 60 percent solution also had an error in the pattern because it constantly decreased

0.3 or 0.4 grams between each interval until the interval between the 6 and 9 minutes where the

mass increased 0.6 grams. The sources of error may have occurred due to the string becoming

loose because of it being submerged in water and played with when taking it out of the beaker,

not drying the dialysis tubing well enough or drying it too much to the point where that small

amount of water effect the mass change, and the perfect amount of solution in each dialysis

tubing. Major changes could occur if you double tied the string to make sure the string holding

together the end of the tubing is strung tight enough.

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References

“Diffusion and Passive Transport.” Khan Academy,

www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membrane-and-transport/passove-trasnport/a/duffusion-

and-passove-transport

“Osmosis and Tonicity.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membranes-

and-transport/diffusion-and-osmosis/a/osmosis.

“Osmosis.” Science Clarified, www.sicenceclariified.com/everyday/Real-Life-Chemistry-Vol-

2/Osmosis.html.