OSMOSIS LAB Thompson 1

Introduction

Passive transport is the movement of substances across the cell membrane without requiring any

extra energy. This only happens with certain substances because the cell is selectively

permeable, meaning only certain compounds like water can move freely (Medical-Dictionary).

The cell membrane being Selectively permeable opens the door for osmosis, which is the

movement of water from high to low concentrations until an equilibrium is reached (Merriam-

Webster). Equilibrium at the end of osmosis where the concentrations of solute and water are the

same on the inside and outside of the cell. This can be moving from the outside of the cell to the

inside, or the inside of the cell to the outside. Certain solutions cause different types of

movement, for example an isotonic solution requires little to no movement because the

concentrations of water and solute on the outside match the inside of the cell. Another type of

solution is a hypertonic solution where the concentration of water and solute on the outside is

lower, so water moves out of the cell. The last type of osmotic solution is a hypotonic solution,

where the concentration of water and solute on the inside is lower than the outside, so water

moves into the cell (Khan Academy). The cell cannot control these movements, because the

aquaporins that let water in and out of the cell are always open. Osmosis is performed by pour

cells every second of our life to maintain homeostasis. When we drink water, it goes through our

body and is used in all our cells. When we learn about osmosis we learn about a major function

of the cell and why eating or drinking certain things is bad for us or good for us. Therefore, it is

important that we have good dialysis tubing. Dialysis tubing is a selectively permeable

membrane that closely represents our cell membrane. The purpose for the first lab was to observe

how the cell reacts in separate osmotic environments. It shows up the rate at which the osmosis

occurs, and how different hypertonic hypotonic and isotonic environments are taken care of in
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cells. The setup for this lab was 6 beakers, one with 20% solution, 40% solution, 60% solution,

80 % solution, and Water. We had bags of water in the dialysis tubing that were dropped in to

these beakers and left in for 3-minute time increments. After 3 minutes we would dry the baggies

off and then weigh the bag to compare it to its original weight. This let us observe how water

flowed in and out of the simulated cell. The last beaker we had in the back was full of starch and

placed in a water/iodine mixture. If iodine meets starch it creates a nice blue/purple color. This

was to observe what the simulated cell membrane was permeable to. The independent variable

for the first part was the osmotic environments each of the cells were placed into. The dependent

variable was the change in the mass of the baggies. For the second part, the independent variable

was the location of the starch, in our case it was in the baggie, and the dependent variable was

the color change of the starch. 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 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

Materials list:

1. 6 beakers

2. 20% glucose solution

3. 40% glucose solution

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4. 60% glucose solution

5. 80% glucose solution

6. Water

7. Paper towels

8. Dialysis tubing

9. String

10. Timer

11. A Scale

12. Pipets

13. Iodine

14. Starch

15. Graduated cylinders

16. Plastic spoons

17. Positivity and an encouraging attitude

Procedures:

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 fold. Once you tie this knot with your string tie

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

3. Opening the other end of the tubing fill the baggies half way up using the following

substances (Laboratory Dialysis):

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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

2. 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 carful

not to mix them up.

3. Weigh each of the baggies 1 by 1 and record the weights in your data

4. 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

5. Once you have your beakers set up, get a timer and get a 3-minute timer set

6. 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

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

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

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

another 3-minutes
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9. After 3 minutes dry the baggie and weigh it again

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

Results

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 5.4g 4.9g 7.5g 6.3g 5.5g 6.5g
Mass (g)
Mass 5.7g 5.2g 8.1g 6.9g 5.2g 6.8g
After 3
minutes
(g)
Mass +0.3g +0.3g +0.6g +0.6g -0.3g +0.3g
change
from 0-3
minutes
(g)
Mass after 5.7g 5.5g 8.6g 7.5g 5g 6.9g
6 minutes
(g)
Mass +0.0g +0.3 +0.5g +0.6g -0.2g +0.1g
change
from 3-6
minutes
(g)
Mass after 5.6g 5.8g 8.9g 7.9g 4.6g 7g
9 minutes
(g)
Mass -0.1g +0.3 +0.3g +0.4g -0.4g +0.1g
change
from 6-9
minutes
(g)
Table 1: This table shows our data over the different time changes, or the rate of osmosis

over the tested time periods.

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Figure 1: Mass of the bag vs. Time

Figure 1: This graph shows the mass of the bag over time, or the rate of osmosis.

Key/ Legend: Yellow – Bag 6, Gray – Bag 4, Orange – Bag 3, Green – Bag 2, Dark Blue – Bag

1, Light Blue – Bag 5.

Part 2:

Table 2: Color of the Bag of Starch vs. Time

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
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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
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 5.4g, Bag 2 weighed 4.9g, Bag 3 weighed 7.5g, Bag 4 weighed 6.3g, Bag 5 weighed

5.5g, Bag 6 weighed 6.5g. After the bags being in the beakers for 3 minutes the weights read the

following; Bag 1 weighed 5.7g, Bag 2 weighed 5.2g, Bag 3 weighed 8.1g, Bag 4 weighed 6.9g,

Bag 5 weighed 5.2g, Bag 6 weighed 6.8g. The total mass changes for each bag from 0-3 minutes

read as the following; Bag 1 +0.3g, Bag 2 +0.3g, Bag 3 +0.6g, Bag 4 +0.6g, Bag 5 –0.3g, Bag 6

+0.3g. After the baggies being in the solutions for 6 minutes the weights read as the following;

Bag 1 5.7g, Bag 2 5.5g, Bag 3 8.6g, Bag 4 7.5g, Bag 5 5g, Bag 6 6.9g. The mass change from 3-

6 minutes read as the following; +0g, +0.3g, +0.5g, +o.6g, -0.2g, +0.1g. After the baggies were

in the solutions for 9 minutes the mass of the baggies read as the following; 5.6g, 5.8g, 8.9g,

7.9g, 4.6g, 7g. The mass change from 6-9 minutes then read as the following; -0.1g, +0.3g,

+0.3g, +0.4g, -0.4g, +0.1g. 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 results that we got from the lab are results we would expect to get. All the bags that

were in hypotonic environments, and the bags that were in hypertonic environments gained or
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lost weight accordingly. The bags that were in hypertonic solutions, such as bag 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6,

all gained weight. The bags with greater differences in concentrations, such as bag 3 and 4,

gained more mass quicker than the other bags such as bags 1, 2, and 6. As the bags sat in the

solution longer, the differences in weight slowed because the bags got closer to equilibrium. As

the ratio of solute to solvent became close to equal on the inside and out of the bags the rate of

osmosis slowed because the difference between gradients got smaller and smaller. Some bags,

such as the 80% bag in the 60% solution were odd bags because they had the same difference in

gradient as the 20% bag in water, but the 80/60 experiment gained less weight. The bags began

by gaining the same mass (+0.3g) but after the 6 minutes the mass gain for the 80/60 bag was

+0.1g while the gain for the 20/water was still +0.3g. We can assume this to be because there is

less water between both gradients, and the solutions will have to share a finite amount of water to

reach equilibrium. In part two of the lab, as our results we got a blue bag in a now clear solution.

When we started the bag had a white powder, which was potato starch, and a yellow iodine water

solution. The reason we ended with a blue bag was because the iodine moved across the

semipermeable membrane to react with the starch. This experiment showed us that the dialysis

tubing was not only permeable to water but iodine too. Although we got normal results, they

could be off a small amount because of a couple different sources of error. One source can be

human error which can be linked to weighing bags incorrectly or adding wrong. Another source

of error can be that we used warm water in our beakers rather than room temperature water,

which could speed up osmosis. Another source of error could be the cross contamination of

solutions when we filled up our bags. This would change the rate of osmosis because what we

thought was 60% solution could really be 50%. Finally, the last source of error is the different

amount of iodine we used in the second part of the lab. We did not really put a certain amount of
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iodine or water in the beaker, or a certain amount of starch in the bag which can give everyone

different results. This caused some experiments to have different results. If I could change this

lab to make it better I would set aside more time to examine the osmosis rate, because over a

longer period of time we could observe the changes as the solutions reach equilibrium.