B1.

8
Student required practical 3
Name ..................................................................... Class .................. Date .....................

Investigating the effect of sugar or salt solutions

on plant tissue

Setting the scene

Water may move across cell membranes by osmosis. Osmosis is the movement
of water from a dilute solution to a concentrated solution through a partially
permeable membrane.
You may have cut up vegetables before in cooking, but you probably didn't leave
them in a pan of cold water. Can you suggest how they might have changed if
you did? And what if you'd left them in sugary or salty water?
This is what you are going to investigate.

Safety
 Take care with sharp knives.

Equipment and materials

 three pieces of vegetable  tweezers
 sugar solution  boiling tubes
 distilled (pure) water  measuring cylinder
 sharp knife  balance
 filter paper  stop-watch

Method
Your task is to find out how the vegetable chips change when left in pure water
compared to sugary water (a solution).
1 Measure the mass of three pieces of vegetable using a balance. Cut the pieces of vegetable so that
they are all the same mass. Record the mass of the pieces of vegetable in the results table.
2 Measure 15 cm3 of distilled water using a measuring cylinder. Put the water into a boiling tube.
Repeat for 0.25M solution and 0.5M solution.
3 Make sure each tube is clearly labelled.
4 Put a piece of vegetable in each boiling tube and leave at the side of the classroom for next lesson.
5 At the start of next lesson use tweezers to remove the pieces of vegetable from the boiling tubes and
place on some filter paper.
6 Dab the pieces of vegetable to remove any excess liquid.
7 Measure the mass of the pieces of vegetable using a balance. Record the new mass in the results
table.

Results
Add the units used for measuring the mass to the table.

© Oxford University Press 2016 www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements

This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. 1
 B1.8
Student required practical 3
Name ..................................................................... Class .................. Date .....................

Change in the mass

Mass of vegetable before Mass of vegetable after
Liquid of the vegetable
In (units: ………….) In (units: ………….)
in (units: ………….)
Water
0.25 M solution
0.5 M solution

Questions
1 What was your independent variable?

(1 mark)
2 What was your dependent variable?

(1 mark)

3 What were your control variables?

(1 mark)
4 Explain your results, with reference to osmosis.

(4 marks)

5 Evaluate your method. How accurate do you think your results are? Why? What would you change if
you did it again?

© Oxford University Press 2016 www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements

This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. 2