MY LAB REPORT ON OSMOTIC CONCENTRATION IN POTATO CELLS

I made progress on this second lab report. my professor gave me a higher grade but the grade isn't what I’m concerned about i like being able to create a master piece with all the assignments that are given to me. School is something like a painting to me, I might not get everything right but like any master piece it is the flaws that make it unique. So the flaws in this paper I look to I’m prove. The one thing that my professor mention was that I needed embedded quotes of research this is also the same problem I was having on some of my English paper. I spend most of my time doing papers like this now.  So on the next paper I believe I will knock it out of the park so here is my paper.

Osmotic concentration

Abstract

            Water flows in and out of cells in an attempt to attain a state of equilibrium. The concentration of solutes to solvent in the cells environment is the cause of the water flow. Plant and animal cells can be negatively affected or positively affected due to the concentration balance in their environment. Potato cells were used to see the affects of sucrose in different concentrations. In some concentrations a weight change was seen in the potato.

Introduction

            In the osmotic concentration lab potatoes were used to see the affects of different concentrations of sucrose on the weight of the potatoes. Solanum tubersum more commonly known as the potato is the fourth most important food crop in the world. It originates from South America and is now seen all over the world in different elevations and climates. The potato is not only seen as a vegetable but as an ant famine food because of its ability to grow in harsh environments and feed many people in third world nations. Potatoes are full sucrose used for energy storage in plants.  Sucrose is a carbohydrate or sugar found in food. It’s a combination of fructose and glucose two simple sugars, making it a disaccharide. Consumers break down sucrose a disaccharide into two monosaccharide, so they can be absorbed easier and quicker into the blood. Without being broken down sucrose is too large of a molecule to diffuse through semi permeable membrane and wouldn’t be able move in and out of cells affectively. Because potatoes have sucrose inside them a concentration gradient is present and if placed in any solution osmosis movement of water through semi permeable membranes would naturally occur. If the concentration of sucrose in the solutions is less than the concentration in the potato then the potato will gain mass and vice versa. In conducting this experiment sucrose concentrations can be used in the future to obtain a more productive potato regarding crops. Further experimentation would be needed to determine the effects.

           

Materials & Methods

            In the osmotic lab five 250ml beakers, a china marker, metric ruler, digital balance, paper towels, a knife and five bottles containing solutions 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.35m of sucrose were used in the experiment.

            The china marker was used to label the five 250 ml beakers with the five different concentrations of sucrose 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.35m. Then 100ml of each sucrose solutions were poured into their designated beaker. A knife was used to peel the potato and then the metric ruler was used to measure five 3cm cubes. The cubes were weighed on the digital balance to the nearest tenths of a gram. The weight of each potato cube was recorded on table 7-6 under initial weight. As each mass was taken the potato cubes were placed in the solutions of sucrose where the initial mass was recorded. After letting the potatoes soak in their designated sucrose solutions they were removed and blotted lightly with the paper towels. The potatoes where then measured on the digital balance and the changes in weight were recorded on table 7-6 under final. The change in weights if any was then calculated between each individual potato’s initial and final weight.

Results

The initial weight of all five potatoes changed after soaking in the sucrose solutions. The potatoes in the .15M and .20M sucrose solutions experienced a positive gain in weight; while the .25M and .30M potatoes experienced a negative lose of mass.  The .15M potato gained .54g in weight and the .20M potato gained .12g in weight. The .25M potato lost .01 of its weight and the .30M lost .15g shown in the chart below. An unexpected result happened to the .35M potato, unlike the .25M&.30M potatoes, the .35M potato gained .66g of weight.

Solute Concentration in Potato Tuber Cell Table:

Solution	Initial	Final	changes	Percent changes
0.15 M	32.49g	33.03g	.54g	0.9836%
0.20 M	28.41g	28.53g	.12g	0.9957%
0.25 M	30.47g	30.46g	-.01g	1.0003%
0.30 M	25.58g	25.43g	-.15g	1.0006%
0.35 M	22.68g	23.34gg	.66g	0.9717%

Conclusion

            The changing of weight of the potatoes shows evidence that different concentrations of sucrose has an affect over the flow of water in and out of tuber cells. The concentration of sucrose in potatoes could be between .20M & .25M because evidence shown in the table illustrates that the final weight of the potato remained considerably close to the initial weight between these two increments that were measured. Discovering the optimal amount of sucrose in potatoes could help increase the size and may help with the growth of the potatoes and other plants. The results of the .35M potato are contradicting to the rest of the experiment because of its negative correlation with the other results.

Works Cited

Freeman, Scott. Biological Science. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings, 2011. Print.

Kiple, Kenneth F, and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas. The Cambridge World of Food. www.cambridge.org. Cambridge University Press, n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

Perry, James W, David Morton, and Joy B Perry. Laboratory Manual for General Biology. Belmont CA: Brooks/‌Cole Cengage Learning, 2007. Print.

Reed, Jessica. “What is Sucrose.” WiseGeek.com. N.p., 23 Oct. 2011. Web. 1 Nov. 2011