Osmosis in Potatoes Gcse Coursework

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Writing coursework, especially on a scientific topic like "Osmosis in Potatoes" for GCSE, can be a

challenging task. It requires a deep understanding of the subject matter, solid research skills, and the
ability to articulate your findings in a clear and organized manner. Here are some reasons why
writing coursework on this topic might be difficult:

1. Scientific Complexity: Understanding the scientific principles behind osmosis in potatoes


requires a strong grasp of biology and chemistry concepts. Analyzing and interpreting
experimental data can be challenging for students without a solid foundation in these
subjects.
2. Experimental Design: Designing a valid and reliable experiment to investigate osmosis in
potatoes requires careful planning and execution. Students may struggle with experimental
design, the selection of variables, and ensuring accurate data collection.
3. Data Analysis: Interpreting the results of experiments and presenting them in a meaningful
way can be challenging. Statistical analysis and drawing valid conclusions are crucial aspects
that demand attention to detail.
4. Writing Skills: Expressing scientific ideas in a clear and concise manner is a skill that not all
students have developed. Writing a coursework report involves structuring information
logically, using appropriate scientific language, and demonstrating a coherent argument.

Given the difficulty of this task, some students may seek additional assistance. While it's essential
for students to develop their skills, external help can be valuable, especially for those facing time
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I feel that it would also be interesting to see how the age of the potato affects the rate at which
osmosis happens; instead of using only one potato I could experiment using potatoes that are 2
months, 3 or even 4 months old and compare with a fresh new potato. Osmosis will continue until a
state of equilibrium is reached i.e. there is no area with a higher or lower concentration than another
area. Therefore, osmosis is always trying to make a concentrated solution more dilute. Biology
Coursework: Osmosis in Potato Cells Introduction We are going to investigate the process of osmosis
in potato cells Osmosis is the diffusion of water. Here, the potato sample will take in water from the
solution by osmosis and increase in mass. After 24 hours I will take them out and weigh them. To
make the mass readings more fair, I will take each chip of the solution, roll all the surfaces gently on
a paper towel, to remove all excess solution, and I must not squeeze the chip. We only had 3
solutions of salt and we needed 5 so we halved the 5% and the 2% to give us 2.5% and 1%
concentrate solutions. Biology Controlled Assessment - osmosis in potatoes - Document in. When
even more water leaves the cell, the cell membrane tears away from the cell wall. If not kept at same
length and width the potato chip will have different amounts of cell sap, which can lead to unreliable
results. The cork borer was size 6 and helped to make cylindrical measurement of all the pieces as
close as possible to each other, after that a ruler was used to determine the length. Then we weighed
and measured the potato for equal surface area and size. The piece of potato was kept in 3 different
types of solutions which are given below as well as the changes in mass and the percentage change.
This means that the inward force is equal to that of the outward force. I kept in mind that a scalpel is
extremely sharp and dangerous if misused. This is due to the fact that potatoes contain a far less
concentration of water molecules than water itself; therefore molecules in the water will travel
through the potatoes membrane, hence increasing the concentration of water in the potato as well as
its measurement lengthwise and weight. After 5 minutes we took the bits of potato out of their
respective solutions and weighed and measured them. When no more water can be entered we say
the cell is fully turgid in other words swollen. Using two potato cuttings in each container was
slightly inefficient as they weren’t identical causing inaccuracies. The water molecules move through
the semi-permeable until it is equalled. If it bends the potato is plasmolysed and if it is dry and snaps
easier than the other the potato is turgid. Each potato will have 20 minutes inside their respective
beakers. I had to be extremely precise in all parts of the experiment because each one was as
important as the next. Here, the potato sample will take in water from the solution by osmosis and
increase in mass. The greater the concentration of water molecules in a solution, the greater the total
kinetic energy it possesses- hence its heightened water potential. An Investigation to find the Effect
of Distance from the Sea on the Number. Also, the cuts I made in the potatoes to identify them were
difficult to see when the pieces of potato shrunk and so identification was very difficult. Or we could
have not left the potato in the solution for long enough, causing our results to be what would happen
prematurely.
The points on the graph are fairly close together and aren’t too scattered. We halved them by
measuring out 12.5ml of the given solution and then 12.5 ml of water. E.g. 5% salt solution, then we
added 12.5ml of water to dilute it, so it was 12.5ml salt concentrate and 12.5ml water. After doing
this and putting the solutions into the boiling tubes we cut up, weighed and measured 6 pieces of
potato that were going into the boiling tubes. The conclusion is based firmly on the evidence
collected and is backed up by a good level of science. However if I was to repeat the experiment I
will increase the time of the results to allow more osmosis to happen and possibly find out the
saturation point of the chips. I then calculated the average loss or gain in height of the potato chips
using. All these factors may have affected the quality of my results and could be improved on. I will
keep the temperature constant by ensuring to the best of my ability that the conditions and the room
temperature stay the same, and I will prove this by recording the temperature of the solution both
before and after the experiment. If you don’t know already what osmosis is then here is a brief
definition. The solutions had already been distilled so I didn’t have do that, but I had to cut 25 pieces
of potato using a kitchen knife and ruler for accuracy and precision. However, the main experiment
needs to use exact figures (unlike the preliminary which only had to loosely prove a predicted trend).
In the trail run we used one piece of potato per solution which was dug out using a size 6 cork borer
and a ruler to make the length 3cm long. I will carry out all of my experimental work at room
temperature and so temperature will not affect my experiment; however I will measure the starting
and end temperature to ensure that there are no drastic changes in temperature. This process allows
plants to take in water through their roots, as well as being used in kidney dialysis machines to filter
the blood. Human red blood cells, if placed in distilled water, expand and burst. This is real useful
for giving support to green plant tissue and for opening stomata guard cells. You can see the line
intercepts with the x axis labeled the concentration. The potato pieces will then be placed in specific
test tubes and left for 5 minutes with the mixture in their. See other similar resources ?0.00 4.90 10
reviews Download Save for later Not quite what you were looking for. Human red blood cells, if
placed in distilled water, expand and burst. Our customer service team will review your report and
will be in touch. ?4.00 (no rating) 0 reviews BUY NOW Save for later ?4.00 (no rating) 0 reviews
BUY NOW Save for later Last updated 5 June 2020 Share this Share through email Share through
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Resources 4.63 378 reviews Not the right resource. Use an apple corer to cut out a cylinder of potato,
making sure it is at least 3 cm long. The percentage change in size is fine, you can see that as soon as
salt is added in the solutions the size decreases as predicted. I think it would be better to use separate
test tubes because in this experiment the sides of the potato pieces were in contact with each other
and that nay have affected the osmosis that was taking place as the surface area may have been
decreased due to this. This will cause the potato sample to lose mass, and will make the potato plant
cells flaccid. We halved them by measuring out 12.5ml of the given solution and then 12.5 ml of
water. E.g. 5% salt solution, then we added 12.5ml of water to dilute it, so it was 12.5ml salt
concentrate and 12.5ml water. After doing this and putting the solutions into the boiling tubes we
cut up, weighed and measured 6 pieces of potato that were going into the boiling tubes. I m doing
GCSE Osmosis courswork and I ve confused myself about the So all of my potato strips gained
mass, does that mean I should. I also did this as a practice run so I could do my actual investigation
quickly and accurately. The range of concentrations was adequate but I would possibly create more
concentrations if I repeated the experiment, so that I would have more varied results, i.e. 0.10m,
1.15m, 1.20m, and so on. No accidents other than the test tubes breaking occurred. Osmosis provides
the primary means by which water is transported into and out of cells.
Here, water molecules will leave the potato by osmosis in order to dilute the solution. This was done
by using the same SOMETHING to extract potato plant samples. Therefore, the surface areas also
had to be kept the same. This will give me a varied set of results from which I hope to make a
decent conclusion. See other similar resources ?0.00 4.90 10 reviews Download Save for later Not
quite what you were looking for. If I were to repeat the experiment I would have possibly found a
machine to cut the potato as it would ensure that all potatoes would be the same weight. The
concentrated solution always remained the same and was obtained using a pipette. We only had 3
solutions of salt and we needed 5 so we halved the 5% and the 2% to give us 2.5% and 1%
concentrate solutions. Although I did the repeats in the same test tube which helped me to make sure
that the concentrations were kept the same, however I think it would be better to do the repeats
separately but due to the limitation of having less test tubes we had to do the repeats in the same
one. We weighed and measured them to see if there had been any osmosis occurring in the solutions.
StudyZones com: Search Zone - Searching osmosis in potato chips. This meant that all the potato
plant samples had the same length, diameter and height. We will do this by having 6 different
solutions of different concentrate with bits of potato in of equal size, and therefore an almost equal
mass. Looking at the results table, I can see there is a definite correlation between the amount of salt
in the solution and it's decrease in mass. If any of the non-variables below are not kept constant it
would mean it would not be a fair test. However, the main investigation will be completed to a larger
degree of accuracy as the purpose of it is to find an exact and precise value (that of isotonic
concentration). If the concentration of the salt solution (in our case Glucose solution) outside the cell
is less than that inside the cell, this means that the solution is Hypotonic to the cells of the potato
chip. The graphic representation of the students’ progress can be highly motivating. However if a
potato chip would be put into a strong sugar solution it would loose mass because the water would
be moving from a high concentration (potato chip) to a low concentration (strong sugar solution).
This is because the water potential of the sugar solution is higher than that of the potato chip. You
must also always use it on a tile to avoid damaging the bench. Human red blood cells, if placed in
distilled water, expand and burst. I m doing GCSE Osmosis courswork and I ve confused myself
about the So all of my potato strips gained mass, does that mean I should. This meant that the water
potential of the cell was smaller than the solution’s causing the solution to suck in water from the
cell. An experiment to show the progress of osmosis in potato tissues. We weighed and measured
them to see if there had been any osmosis occurring in the solutions. However, the main investigation
will be completed to a larger degree of accuracy as the purpose of it is to find an exact and precise
value (that of isotonic concentration). One can see that it does not fit the curve of best fit I drew; it
shows the same change in mass as that of the 0.6M experiment, which is not how it should be. The
new results did successfully fit in with the trend of the graph. Living cells experiment Cylinders or
discs of fresh potato are often used to investigate osmosis in living cells To carry out this type of
experiment, you need to.
Investigate and find the water potential of baking potatoes and sweet potat. This is also the point
where the piece of potato doesn’t shrink or increase in. The cells draw in water; this allows the cells
to become turgid. This shows that reverse osmosis has occurred; the solution outside the piece of
potato has drawn water out from the potato. Write a review Update existing review Submit review
Cancel It's good to leave some feedback. If the experiment was repeated I would find a way in
which to eliminate all possible ways in which I could, physically, affect the investigation. If the water
potential on each side of a cell membrane is the same, there should be no movement of water across
the membrane. The increasing volume of liquid in the vacuole causes it to expand and press the cell
contents harder against the cell wall which causes a decrease in the volume of solution outside the
cell. The surface area will also increase, but again, the change will not be as significant as in
experiment 1. I would do this because I think it would enable more osmosis to occur, thus giving me
a better idea of how the concentration of the solution affects osmosis. Then we placed the pieces of
potato into their respective solutions and started the test. GCSE GCSE resources with GCSE Biology
- Osmosis Coursework Potato and Osmosis The cutting of the potatoes was the most difficult part of
the experiment. The mass of each chip will be measured before and after so that more results can be
obtained and to see if osmosis has occurred. During the taking of these results, a sketch scatter graph
was drawn which displayed the anomalous results that needed to be re-done. The potato in which
there was more water then their surrounding solution became flaccid and the potato piece in which
there was less water than the surrounding hypotonic solution became turgid as a result of losing
water to the solution. However if I was to repeat the experiment I might well increase the time to
allow more osmosis to happen and possibly find out the saturation point of the cylinders of potato.
This is because the water molecules pass from a high concentration, i.e. in the water itself, to a low
concentration, i.e. in the potato chip. Therefore, the chips in higher water concentrations will have a
larger mass than in higher sugar concentrations. The solutions had already been distilled so I didn’t
have do that, but I had to cut 25 pieces of potato using a kitchen knife and ruler for accuracy and
precision. Including these readings as a part of the experiment would have negatively affected the
correlation, so these results were re-done. If this were not done then the readings would be false and
lead to inaccurate results and conclusions. I realised the mistake after I looked at the graph for the
experiment. The size was measured before and after the experiment to whether osmosis had taken
place and to what extent. Osmosis will continue until a state of equilibrium is reached i.e. there is no
area with a higher or lower concentration than another area. The new results did successfully fit in
with the trend of the graph. The percentage change in size is fine, you can see that as soon as salt is
added in the solutions the size decreases as predicted. Anomalies are identified and the readings
repeated. I can conclude from this anomalous graph that I need to be more careful either when
conducting my results or processing my results. Investigation: experiment to show how the effect of
osmosis in potato cells. It usually occurs in plant cells and animal cells e.g. in humans when water
moves from the digestive system into the blood stream and in plants when water goes from the soil
surrounding the plant into the root hair cells and then to the cytoplasm. I will keep this the same by,
as aforementioned, recording the time that each experiment begins and making sure to only leave it
for one hour.

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