Osmosis Lab Report1

Osmosis Lab Report

Ryan Jackson

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic

Carly Steininger

April 30, 2018

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Introduction

Osmosis has two different forms of transportation. These two forms of transportation are

passive transport and active transport. This lab focused on passive transport, the movement of

particles move from a high concentration to a low concentration across a cell membrane that

does not require ATP or excess energy to perform this function. Another important subject that

this lab focused on was selectively permeable membranes. A selectively permeable membrane is

one that allows certain jobs or molecules to pass through it using passive or active transport. A

cell can be identified by three different osmotic environments: hypotonic, isotonic, and

hypertonic. Each of the environments have their own characteristics that make them unique from

one another. A hypotonic environment is when the concentration of water is greater than the

amount of solute outside the cell. An isotonic environment is when the amount of water and the

amount of solute are equal inside and out of the cell. Lastly a hypertonic environment is when

the amount of solute is greater than the amount of water outside the cell. Osmosis is very

important for everyday life in many ways. One example is within hospitals for patients who are

on an IV drip. When a patient comes into the hospital for dehydration, they are usually put on an

IV drip of saline instead of water. The reasoning behind this is because the saline has an equal

amount of solute and water within it so the patient’s body can get back to equilibrium. If the

patients were hooked up to an IV drip of water, the patient could be put into a hypotonic

environment and possibly end up dying due to cytolysis. During the experiment, the scientists

used bags to represent a cell in different osmotic environments. However, these bags were not

regular plastic bags, but dialysis tubing. Dialysis tubing is a semi-permeable membrane tubing

used for separation techniques. These dialysis tubings were used to represent a cell perfectly
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because it is semi-permeable meaning that it allows certain molecules to pass through its outside

layer.

This lab was done for three main purposes. These purposes were to show the different rates of

osmosis, to show how the concentration gradients played a factor, and to show a semi-permeable

cell membrane in a simulation. For this lab, several beakers and dialysis tubings were used to

represent different amounts of solute within the cell. For example four different beakers were

filled with pure water and beaker 5 was filled with 60% pure starch. Inside the dialysis tubing

contained 5mL of pure water with certain amounts of starch. Dialysis tubing 1 had 20% starch

another tube had 40% another tube had 60% and the last tube had 80% which was placed into the

60% pure starch beaker.

The dependent variable in part 1 of this lab was the mass of the dialysis tubing after being

placed in the beakers. On the other hand, the independent variable for part 1 of the lab was the

amount of glucose placed in the dialysis tubings. These variables are not the same for part 2 of

the lab. The dependent variable for part 2 of the lab was the color change of the starch after being

dropped in the beaker with water and iodine. The independent variable for part 2 of the lab was

the starch being inside of the dialysis tubing. The constants for part 1 of the lab were the amounts

of water, the time it took for each dialysis tubing to sit in water, and the amount of drying of the

dialysis tubing after being pulled out of the beakers. The control group was the water beaker with

the water dialysis tubing and the experimental group was the rest of the beakers. The constants

for part 2 of the lab was the amount of iodine and the amount of starch placed in the beaker. The

control group for part 2 of the lab was the before stage of the beaker with the dialysis tubings and

the experimental group was thefter stage of the beakers with the dialysis tubing.
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For part 1 of the lab, it was hypothesized that if you put a dialysis tubing with a higher

concentration of glucose in water, then the amount of mass will increase when pulled out of the

beaker. For part 2 of the lab it was hypothesized that the iodine molecules that are dripped into

the beaker full of water will be selectively permeable to the dialysis tubing and turn the starch

inside into a blue color due to cell transport, Stand allowing the iodine molecules to pass through

the dialysis tubing.

Materials

All the materials used in this lab are listed:

 6 beakers

 7 dialysis tubing bags

 20 drops of iodine

 Scale

 Paper towels

 Starch solution

 Water

 Stopwatch

 Graduated Cylinders

 Stringed ribbon

Procedures

1. Take 6 dialysis tubing bags from their bin where they are being soaked, and fold the one end

in 1 centimeter. Then tie a string around the end securely. Finally cut off loose remaining string.
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2. Fill the bags with different percentages of starch. Bag 1 gets 1/2 filled with tap water. Bag 2

gets 1/2 filled with 20% starch. Bag 3 gets 1/2 filled with 40% starch. Bag 4 gets 1/2 filled with

60% starch. Bag 5 gets 1/2 filled with tap water. Bag 6 gets 1/2 filled with 80% starch.

3. After filling the bags, tie the other end of the bag by folding it 1 centimeter and wrapping

string around it. Then cut the remaining string. In order to remember which bag is which, put a

number on each paper towel, one paper towel per bag.

4. Obtain a glass weighing dish, and separately weigh the bags. Record the mass on a chart.

5. Place the bags in the appropriate beakers.

6. At 3 minutes, 6 minutes, and 9 minutes, take the bags out of the beakers at the same time to

dry them off so they can be weighed to the nearest gram with care. Record the new mass in the

appropriate column and row at each interval. Place the bags back in at the same time, and do not

mix up the bags.

7. Record data from bag 1 into Table 1. For bags 2-6, take the average weights of each and put

those into Table 1.

Part 2

1. Take the dialysis tubing and fold it 1 centimeter and then tie the bag with string. Cut the string

2 centimeters and make additional knots with the remaining string.

2. Take the dialysis tubing and fill 1/2 with starch.

3. Add roughly 1 teaspoon of starch to the dialysis tube. Fold the second end 1 centimeter and tie

it, then cut the string.

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4. Take the bags and rinse them cautiously with water to rinse of any starch from the sides of the

bag that could obstruct with the data. Dry the bag by patting it lightly and set it to the side.

5. Fill the beaker halfway with tap water and add 20 drops of Iodine. Place the cell into the water

with the iodine drops. Fill out the chart with the starting color in the cell and color of the iodine

water.

6. After 15 minutes remove the cell and pat dry.

7. Take note of color changes within the beaker. Fill out the changes in the chart about the color

change.

Results

Mass of Cells After Certain Amounts of Time

Time Water in 20 % in 40% in 60% in Water in 80% in

Water Water Water Water 60% 60%
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 0.208 0.317 0.408 0.567 -0.15 0.241
6 0.291 0.534 0.8 1.009 -0.533 0.316
9 0.249 0.701 1.108 1.409 -0.783 0.399

Description: The following data shows that after certain amounts of time, the amounts of mass

began to change within the dialysis tubing. As shown, the mass change at 0 is 0. As you can see,

the chart is showing that the longer the dialysis tubing with solute in it is in the water, the more

mass it begins to gain due to the hypotonic environment taking over and filling up the solute.

Mass of the bags V.S. Time

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Description: This graph is showing that the different amounts of solute in the water makes a

difference when it comes to mass. The more solute in the dialysis tubing, the more mass there

would be after being pulled out of the beaker of water.

Analysis

After studying the graphs and data, it is safe to say that all dialysis tubings that contained solute

gained mass after being placed in the beakers of water. Certain bags gained weight during part 1

of the lab because they were being put in a hypotonic environment, allowing water to pass

through the dialysis tubing. However, there were times when the dialysis tubing loss weight as

well. When this happened, the cells were placed into a hypertonic environment meaning that

there is more solute than water outside the cell therefore, taking water out of the cell and

decreasing mass. As simulated cells got closer to equilibrium, the rate of osmosis goes down.

The rate of osmosis rises when there is a higher concentration gradient rather than a lower

concentration gradient. The 80% bag in 60% starch not matching up with 20% in water. The

difference between the two is 20%. In part 2 of the lab, the starch inside the dialysis tubing

turned blue because of the 20 drops of iodine. The dialysis tubing is permeable to iodine,
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allowing it to pass through. Some errors that may have occurred include unevenly drying the

dialysis tubing, uneven amounts of starch in dialysis tubing, not precise timing, or not properly

recording data. One change that I would make to make this lab better would be to increase the

amount of trials to make the data more accurately correct.

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Works Cited

Diffusion. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://hyperphysics.phy-

astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Kinetic/diffus.html

Dialysis Tubing. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/technical-

documents/articles/labware/dialysis-tubing.html

Passive transport and active transport across a cell membrane article. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/cells/transport-across-a-cell-
membrane/a/passive-transport-and-active-transport-across-a-cell-membrane-article