Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 1

Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis

Anthony J Ravasio
Honors Biology 10, Period 4
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School
April 30, 2018
 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 2

Introduction

Passive transport is the transport of molecules from one side of the membrane to the

other. The molecules transfer from the outside to the inside and vice versa. These molecules are

moving down their concentration level. Sometimes, the membrane wants to only allow certain

molecules to move in and out of the cell it’s protecting. (Khan Academy, 2017) This means the

membrane is being selectively permeable, or in other words, it is a semipermeable membrane.

Sometimes the membrane tends to let more molecules into one side of the cell to even out the

concentration on both sides. This process is called Osmosis (Merriam-Webster, 2018) There are

three types of Osmotic environments: Hypertonic, Hypotonic, and Isotonic. The Hypotonic

Environment in when there are more solute particles on the inside of the cell than on the inside.

This causes a net inflow of water molecules into the cell, to even out the concentration gradient.

This can cause the cell to inflate or in some cases, explode. The Hypotonic Environment is when

there are more solute particles on the outside of the cell than on the inside. This causes a net

outflow of water into the outside of the membrane, causing the cell to lose all pressure on the

inside, and eventually shriveling up. The Isotonic Environment is when there are a perfect

amount of solute and water molecules on both sides of the cell membrane. Since solute amounts

on each side are equal, there is no need for a flow of water molecules. (Khan Academy, 2017)

Understanding Osmosis for daily life is very important. Osmosis happens in daily life almost all

the time, and it is barely recognized! An example of this is when a person gets out of water, and

the fingers look very wrinkled, or even pruned. Most people assume that they are “pruning” up

by losing water, but this is not the case. This makes it easier to understand the original idea of

osmosis: moving from a less concentrated substance to a more concentrated substance. In this

scenario, the water is less concentrated, and it is trying to cause equilibrium by using osmosis
 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 3

to get into the body. (Gemma, 2014) In the lab, dialysis tubing, an artificial semipermeable

membrane, was used to show the selectively permeable membrane that is used during osmosis.

The lab served many purposes, but three important ones should be mentioned: The lab was

conducted for us to see the effects of osmosis on the three different environments, how the

different concentrations affected the rate of osmosis, and, mainly, to help us understand

osmosis. The setup of our lab consisted of: Two simulated cell filled with 5 mL of water, a

simulated cell with 20% starch solution, a simulated cell with a 40% starch solution, a

simulated cell with 60% starch solution, a simulated cell with an 80% starch solution, and

another simulated cell filled with 5 mL of water. All of these cells were placed in water. In Part

1 of the experiment, the dependent variable was the weight, and the independent was the

amount of sugar/glucose in the cell. In Part 2, the dependent variable was the color change, and

the independent variable was the placement of the starch. These were the constants for Part 1:

The Amount of water (200 mL), How the dialysis tubing was tied, the same type of string, how

we timed each cell (every 3 minutes), and the drying off of the cells before weighting. The

control group for Part 1 were the water and water groups, and the experimental groups were

the rest of the cells (with starch). The constants for Part 2 were as follows: the number of drops

of iodine (20), and making sure the baggy was washed before being dropped into the beaker.

The control group for Part 2 was the original setup, and the experimental group was the setup

after everything finished. The hypothesis for Part 1 was: If the glucose levels in the cells are

above 20%, then the cell weight will increase. The hypothesis for Part 2 was: If the iodine

drops are dropped outside of the dialysis tube, then, because of osmosis, it will enter through

the selectively permeable tubing and change the color of the inside of the cell.
 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 4

Materials

The materials used in the lab were as follows:

1. Beakers (6)

2. Glucose Solution: -20% -40% -60% -80%

3. Water Solution

4. Water and 60% Glucose Solution

5. Dialysis Tubing

6. Scale

7. String

8. Paper towels

9. Timer

10. Pipets

11. Iodine

12. Starch

13. Graduated cylinders

Procedures

Part 1:

1. Fill 4 beakers with 200 mL of water, fill 2 beakers with 60% glucose solution

2. Create 6 simulated cells with dialysis tubing

3. Fill first cell with 5 mL of pure water

4. Tie tubing with string

5. Place tubing in water for 3 minutes.

 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 5

6. Take out of water after 3 minutes and dry.

7. Weigh

8. Record the data

9. Repeat steps 5-8 two more times.

10. Repeat steps 3-9 with water being placed into the 60% glucose solution

11. Repeat steps 3-9 with cell of 20% glucose solution

12. Repeat steps 3-9 with cell of 40% glucose solution

13. Repeat steps 3-9 with cell of 60% glucose solution

14. Repeat steps 3-9 with cell of 80% glucose solution. Place this cell into the 60% glucose

solution.

15. Record the results

Part 2:

1. Fill beaker halfway with water

2. Create 1 simulated cell with ½ spoonful of starch and some water.

3. Drop cell into beaker

4. Drop 20 drops of iodine into the beaker

5. Record results

Results:

These were the results of the lab. For Part 1, the starting weights were as follows: Pure

water bag 1 started at 5.6. 20% bag started at 5.7. 40% bag started at 6.4. 60% bag started at 6.9.

80% bag started at 6.0, and pure water bag 2 started at 5.7. After 3 minutes, pure water bag 1

dropped down to 5.3, dropping in mass by.3. 20% bag increased to 5.9, adding in mass by .2.
 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 6

40% bag increased to 6.7, adding in mass by .3. 60% bag increased to 7.3, adding in mass by .4.

80% bag increased to 6.1, adding in mass by .1. Finally, pure water bag 2 increased to 6.1,

adding in mass by .4. After 6 minutes, pure water bag 1 dropped again down to 5.0, dropping in

mass by .3. 20% bag increased to 6.0, adding in mass by .1. 40% bag increased to 7.1, adding in

mass by .4. 60% bag increased to 7.8, adding in mass by .5. 80% bag increased to 6.3, adding in

mass by .2. Finally, pure water bag 2 dropped to 5.8, decreasing in mass by .3. Finally, after 9

minutes, pure water bag 1 dropped to 4.8, decreasing in mass by .2. 20% bag increased to 6.1,

adding in mass by .1. 40% bag increased to 7.3, adding in mass by .2. 60% bag increased to 8.2,

adding in mass by .4. 80% bag did not increase or decrease, and so its mass stayed at 6.3.

Finally, pure water bag 2 also did not increase or decrease, and so its mass stayed at 5.8.

Mass vs Time Graph, Osmosis Lab Results

2000

1500

1000
Mass

500

-500
Time
-1000
1 2 3 4
Time 0 3 6 9
Water in Water 0 208 291 249
20 % in Water 0 317 534 701
40% in Water 0 408 800 1,108
60% in Water 0 567 1009 1409
Water in 60% 0 -150 -533 -783
80% in 60% 0 241 316 399

Figure 1: Osmosis Lab Results

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In the graph above, the lines show the trends of data from the last lab. All 6 series are not
completely identical, though they are very close. The data below the graph corresponds with the
graph’s trend lines identically.

Table 1: Osmosis Lab Results

Water in 20 % in
Time Water Water 40% in Water 60% in Water Water in 60% 80% in 60%
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 208 317 408 567 -150 241
6 291 534 800 1009 -533 316
9 249 701 1,108 1409 -783 399
The information above are the weighed measurements of each bag after the allotted time
slots. This information was measured after every 3 minutes. These are averages of all the weights
of the bags measured in class. These averages were calculated by putting every weight of every
cell of every group onto an Excel spreadsheet, and combining them to find averages for each
time slot.

For Part 2, the results were pretty simple. The iodine turned the inside of the bag blue, through

osmosis and the selectively permeable membrane of the dialysis tubing. The outside of the water

stayed absolutely clear.

Discussion

The lab was conducted to try to show an example to students what would happen during

osmosis with a cell membrane being selectively permeable. The bags in Part 1 of the test lost and

gained weight mainly because of the osmotic environments they were placed into. They gained

or lost weight based on the environment that the bags were put in. “If the extracellular fluid has

lower osmolarity than the fluid inside the cell, it’s said to be hypotonic—hypo means less than—

to the cell, and the net flow of water will be into the cell. In the reverse case, if the extracellular

fluid has a higher osmolarity than the cell’s cytoplasm, it’s said to be hypertonic—hyper means

greater than—to the cell, and water will move out of the cell to the region of higher solute
 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 8

concentration.” (Khan Academy, 2017) The rate of osmosis tends to slow down majorly as it

gets closer and closer to equilibrium. Osmosis rate differs between concentration gradients. For

example, the 60% gradient is higher than the 20% gradient. This means that since there is more

glucose in the 60%, the rate of osmosis will be higher. The reason why the 80/60 simulated cell

did not gain as much weight as the 20/0 cell was because the beaker had two cells in it. One had

a hypotonic environment and the other had a hypertonic environment. Since there was a higher

concentration outside of the cell for the hypotonic cell, it turned blue. This allowed for water

molecules to go through the membrane, which also brought iodine with it. This shows that the

dialysis tubing is permeable to the iodine solution. Some sources of error could include mixing

up some of the bags, not calculating the mass changes fast enough, the wrong amount of solution

in any of the bags, or even not taking them out at the same time. One change that could be made

to make the lab better would be to not do it in small amounts of time, but to actually do it in

longer periods to see better results of osmosis.

 Passive Transport through Cell Diffusion and Osmosis 9

References

Academy, K. (2017). Hypotonic, Isotonic, and Hypertonic Solutions. Retrieved from Khan
Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membranes-and-
transport/diffusion-and-osmosis/v/hypotonic-isotonic-and-hypertonic-solutions-tonicity
Academy, K. (2017). Passive Transport and Selective Permeability. Retrieved from Khan
Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membranes-and-
transport/passive-transport/v/passive-transport-and-selective-permeability
Gemma, W. (2014, June 10). 7 Examples Of Osmosis In Everyday Life. Retrieved from Udemy:
https://blog.udemy.com/examples-of-osmosis/
Merriam-Wesbter. (2018). Osmosis Definition. Retrieved from Merriam Webster:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/osmosis
Osmosis and Tonicity. (2018). Retrieved from Khan Academy:
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membranes-and-transport/diffusion-
and-osmosis/a/osmosis