SKILLS TO BE ASSESSED AI/ORR

Date TBA
Title: Osmosis in Onion cell/Preparing an Onion Slide
Aims: To prepare a slide of onion cells and view them under a microscope
To investigate the effects of osmosis on onion cells
Introduction:
Osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a high concentration to a low concentration through a
semi permeable membrane. When water molecule concentration is higher outside of the cell than it is
inside(also known as hypotonic solution), we expect to see movement of water into the cell which causes
the cells to enlarge or become “turgid”. When there is a lower concentration of water on the outside of the
cell, we expect the plant cell to shrink or in the case of a plant cell undergo plasmolysis.
When preparing an onion cell slide, we commonly use one of the thin leaf layers in the onion. (These leaf
layers are so thin that they only contain one layer of plant cells) We then take these leaves and add a cell
stain (iodine or methylene blue) to see the structures of the cell clearly.

Materials/Apparatus:

 Onion
 Forceps/Tweezers/Scalpels
 Watch Glass/Petri Dish
 Distilled Water
 Saline Solution 30% NaCl
 Dropper
 Iodine Solution
 Cover slips
 Glass slide
 Microscope
 Beakers
 Timer
 Mounting Stick
Procedure:
Preparing the onion
1. Cut the onion and remove a fleshy leaf from the onion bulb.
2. Place the onion bulb into a beaker filled with distilled water.
3. Allow the onion to soak for 3 minutes.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 but instead place the onion leaf into the saline solution (30% NaCl)
Preparing the Onion Cell

1. Remove the fleshy onion leaf from your beaker.

2. Strip a thin layer with forceps or cut a thin layer of cells with a scalpel.
3. Place thin layer onto the petri dish/watch glass
4. If the layer is too large, use your scalpel to cut the layer into smaller pieces.
5. Place the thin layer onto the middle of glass slide and make sure that it is as flat as possible.
6. With a dropper, add a drop of iodine onto it.
7. With the aid of a mounting stick, gently place the glass slide onto the onion cell layer.
8. Use a piece of filter paper to remove excess liquid from the slide.

Using the Microscope

1. Set the Microscope to 10x Magnification.

2. Place the slide on the microscope and observe.
3. Focus the microscope by using the coarse focus and then the fine focus.
4. Observe the differences between the Hypotonic and Hypertonic slide.

Results

Solution Concentration Observations

0% NaCl

30% NaCl

Add labelled pictures as well!

Discussion:

1. Explain the terms Isotonic, Hypotonic and Hypertonic (3 marks)

2. What is the importance of osmosis to plants (2 marks)
3. Why do animal cells burst when placed in a hypotonic solution and not plant cells (1 mark)
4. Plant Cells can hold larger amounts of water than Animal cells. Explain how they hold
more water and the main purpose of this adaptation. (4 marks)
5. Name 2 other cell types that contain a cell wall (2marks)

Limitations or Precautions