PRACTICAL Name:

7 Osmosis A Empty potato cup

You need:
■ potatoes ■ scalpels
■ Petri dishes ■ sugar
Potato
■ dandelion /daisy stems ■ razor blades
Peeled area
■ test tubes and racks
Water

Osmosis in potato cells B Raw potato cup with sugar

1 Make three potato cups from raw potatoes cut in half: cut a Sugar
depression in the top, peel skin off the sides, and give each a flat
base (see diagram).
2 Boil one cup. Place the cups in Petri dishes of water. Pour sugar
into the boiled cup and into one of the raw potato cups. Leave
one cup empty.
3 Observe and describe what happens to the sugar, and what
happens in the empty cup. C Boiled potato cup with sugar

Explain what happens in the three cups.

Why was one cup left empty?
What conclusions can you draw about osmosis in living and
dead cells?

Osmosis in dandelion stalks

4 Take two test tubes. Half-fill one with water and the other with
strong sugar solution. Dandelion stalk
5 Obtain two dandelion stalks. Slit them upwards for about
2.5 cm, then make a second upward slit at right angles to the
Two upward slits
first to divide the stalk base into four strips (see diagram).
at right angles
6 Put one stalk in water and the other in sugar solution and leave to each other

them for 10 minutes.

7 Observe and describe what happens.
What happens if you move the stalk in water to the sugar
solution and vice versa?

Your teacher will be looking for:

HAZARD WARNING
■ skilful and safe use of the apparatus given
■ good observation of results Razor blades are sharp,
■ good presentation of results (including diagrams) handle with care.
■ sensible conclusions

Extension
The diagram shows a section through a dandelion stalk. Study it Waxy
outer Large
and use it to form a hypothesis to explain what you observed in layer thin-walled
your experiment. inner cells

© OUP: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute