Cellular Transport & Energetics Day

Booperkit

Cellular Transport & Energetics Day

Topics

Metabolism
Enzymes
Cellular Transport
Tonicity & Osmoregulation
Photosynthesis
Cellular Respiration

Lab – Gummy Bear Osmosis

This needs to be done first because it takes a while to work. Here is a brief introduction but you will learn the theory in more depth later on.

Background:

  • Molecules are always moving. 
  • DIFFUSION is the movement of molecules from an area that is highly crowded to an area that is less crowded. 
  • OSMOSIS is similar to DIFFUSION.  OSMOSIS is the diffusion of water molecules through a selectively permeable membrane.
  • Selectively permeable means some molecules can move through the membrane while others cannot. 
  • Cells use osmosis to move particles that it needs into and out of the cell.  

Answer these questions verbally.

  1. What is diffusion?
  2. What is osmosis?
  3. What does selectively permeable mean?

Complete the following sections in your lab report.

Here is a guide and the lab report headings if you wish to write up the lab report.

Download (PDF, 138KB)

Here is a template if you would prefer to use it.

Download (PDF, 69KB)

Title: Gummy Bear Osmosis

Problem:

  • How will soaking Gummy Bear candies in water affect the size of the candy?
  • How will soaking Gummy Bear candies in saturated water affect the size of the candy?
  • How will soaking Gummy Bear candies in supersaturated water affect the size of the candy?

Materials & Supplies:

  1. Three beakers / test tubes with lids.
  2. Three gummy bears
  3. ruler
  4. scales
  5. Carbonated water
  6. sugar

Procedure:

  1. Boil 1/2 cup water and dissolve sugar in it until the sugar will not dissolve anymore. This is a super-saturated solution because the heat allows more sugar to saturate the water than if it was not heated. Put it in the fridge or freezer to rapidly cool.
  2. Measure your gummy bear’s height and width in centimeters and record it in a data table below.
  3. Find your gummy bear’s mass in grams and record it in the data table. 
  4. Draw all the details of your gummy bear in the data table. Be sure to draw it the size it really is.
  5. Label a beaker ‘water’ and fill it with 100ml of water.
  6. Label a second beaker ‘carbonated saturate’ and fill it with 100ml of carbonated water (put the lid on straight away).
  7. Label a third beaker ‘sugar solution’ and fill it with 100ml of the super-saturated sugar water.
  8. Add your gummy bears to each of the beakers and add lids.

Data Table:

Download (PDF, 78KB)

Now continue with the theory Cellular Transport & Energetics on senecalearning.com.

Complete the End of Unit Test.

End of Day 1 Procedure:

  1. Complete the Hypothesis Section on your lab report now that you are armed with more information.
  2. Find your gummy bear and take the correct measurements to fill out the rest of your data table. 
  3. Calculate the percent change in the size of the gummy bear using the formulae here.

Day 2 Procedure:

  1. Find your gummy bear and take the correct measurements to fill out the rest of your data table.
  2. Calculate the percent change in the size of the gummy bear using the formulae here.
  3. Complete the observations and conclusion sections of your lab report.