Science Fair Experiment: the Osmosis Lab

My project idea is to apply an experiment which is related to the diffusion lesson that I have learnt in science. In this project I am supposed to find the effect of the sucrose concentration on the mass of the potato. Its considered as an important project because its a project that I have benefited from in which I learnt from it new things about diffusion.

The Introductory video:

Define the Problem

The experiment was about measuring the mass of a potato cores before and after placing it inside a tube of distilled water, and 5 tubes that consist of differently concentrated solutions of sucrose in water.The research question used was how the mass of the potato gets affected by the increase in the concentration of sucrose in water ?. Which means that the goal of this experiment is to find out the effect of the different concentrated solutions on the mass of the potato cores.

Background Information

The mass is one of the things that can be recognized from the background information because it's an essential part in many experiments.Mass is a unit that measures the size of an object as weight in grams (for low weight objects), in kilograms for heavy objects, and in ton for superheavy objects such as machines.Also, In this experiment osmosis is an essential part which is considered as a type of diffusion that can be defined as the movement of water molecules from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration through a membrane. Osmosis is similar to the other types of diffusion and almost the same, but there is only one factor that makes it different or special which is that this type of diffusion is only for water molecules. This process occurs in plants to balance between the amount of water in air and in the plant in which the plants have higher amounts of water than air, so water diffuses into the air until the amount of water in both the plant and air is equal. But if the plant is not watered to replace the lost amount of water, it will die.

Hypothesis

If the concentration of sucrose increases then the mass of the potato cores will increase accordingly and this can be proved in the process of osmosis which is the diffusion of water molecules through a membrane which is the potato cores in this experiment. In which osmosis occurs to balance between the concentration of water in a substance and in the air which adds water to air which makes air more dense. As well as the potato cores mass that will increase due to adding more amounts of sucrose, in which when adding more amounts of sucrose the potato will swallow more sucrose which has a certain mass that will be added to the potato.

Variables

Variables are the factors in an experiment that can be controlled, changed (affected), or measured in an experiment. The variables are divided into three different types which are the controlled variable, dependent variable, and the independent variable.

Dependent variable:

The mass of the potato cores is the dependent variable because it gets affected due to the change in the concentration of sucrose. The mass of the potato cores can be found using the weight balance which gives the mass of the potato cores in grams.

Independent variable:

The concentration of sucrose is the independent variable in which the higher concentration of sucrose increases the mass of the potato cores. The concentration of sucrose changes in which the potato cores are exposed to different concentrations of sucrose which are 0.2, 0.4 ,0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 in order to find the relationship between the concentration of sucrose and the potato cores mass.

Controlled variable:

The water is the controlled variable because it stays constant and can be controlled by adding more amounts of water or less amounts of water into the testing tubes.

Materials

Potato

Potato coring device

Razor blade

6 test tubes

Distilled water

Beaker

Weight balance

0.2 ml of the solution in water

0.4 ml of the solution in water

0.6 ml of the solution in water

0.8 ml of the solution in water

1.0 ml of the solution in water

Safety equipment: safety goggles and the lab coat

Procedure

Before starting the experiment there were tools that were required for safety precautions which are the safety goggles the lab coat, and gloves.

First, prepare the materials that are required for the experiment.

Second, pour distilled water in a beaker then pour it into the testing tube until its filled up and name it as distilled water.

Third, pour water into the beaker then pour the water with a concentration of 0.2 ml of sucrose into the second testing tube and name it as s1.

Fourth, pour water into the beaker then pour the water with a concentration of 0.4 ml of sucrose into the third testing tube and name it as s2.

Fifth, pour water into the beaker then pour the water with a concentration of 0.6 ml of sucrose into the fourth testing tube and name it as s3.

Sixth, pour water into the beaker then pour the water with a concentration of 0.8 ml of sucrose into the fifth testing tube and name it as s4.

Seventh, pour water into the beaker then pour the water with a concentration of 1.0 ml of sucrose into the sixth testing tube and name it as s5.

Eighth, Use the coring device to cut the potato into 12 small pieces, then remove the potato skin using the razor blade.

Ninth, measure the mass of two potato cores using the weight balance.

Tenth, place 2 potato cores in each testing tube and check them after 24 hours.

Eleventh, remove the potato cores from the testing tubes and measure the weight of each two.

Finally, record your observations and take notes.

Raw Data Table

Graph

Patterns

It's clearly noticeable that there is a positive relationship between the solution's concentration and the mass of the potato in which as the solution's concentration increases, the mass of the potato cores increases. In other words, the mass of the potato cores (dependent variable) depends on the solution's concentration (Independent variable) to change (positively because it increases) and throw out the experiment.

Evaluating the Hypothesis

Since the data shows that the the potato cores which were exposed to the solution 1 which has a concentration of 0.2 g/l had a new mass of 10.68 g, the potato cores which were exposed to the solution 2 which has a concentration of 0.4g/l had a new mass of 10.72 g, and the potato cores which were exposed to the solution 3 which has a concentration of 0.6 g/l had a new mass of 10.76g, the potato cores which were exposed to the solution 4 which has a concentration of 0.8 g/l had a new mass of 10.80 and the potato core which were exposed to the solution 5 which has a concentration of 1.0 had a new mass of 10.84. So the hypothesis is correct. In which each time the concentration gets higher, the mass of the potato cores increases as it has been noticed in the patterns.

Evaluating the Method

The method used is somehow acceptable despite of the several limitations in which it had some strengths that can cover the limitations which were that the method used was very clear and easy to follow, it doesn't require any hard work, and it can be done separately.Also, in this method the potato cores were left in the solutions for almost 24 hours which is a enough time, in which if the potato cores were left for a shorter time the result may differ. As there have been some strengths in the method used, also there are some limitations or weaknesses in the used method. The most important limitation was that this method did not follow all the safety rules, in which the lab coat and goggles were not used in the experiment which can be dangerous if there were some toxic chemicals.The last limitation is that one of the tools that has been used is not accurate which was the weight balance which gave different numbers for the same object, and this could be considered as a limitation because wrong data can change the results. Since the used method had several strengths despite the limitations, this method can be an acceptable method to be used later on in which there are some strengths that can cover the limitations and weaknesses.

Improving the Experiment

Since the method used had several limitations there must be some improvements or extensions done to this method to make it more useful in the next time which can benefit the scientific investigations. First of all, there must be some safety equipment added to this experiment to make it safer in which safety is the most important factor before any experiment, and this can be done by wearing safety goggles and the gloves to protect the body from any damage. Second, there is one of the tools that is not suitable which is the razor blade, in which it does not cut the potato accurately sometimes which may result in having wrong data which can lead to having wrong results, so the razor blade used must be replaced with a more accurate tool. Third and last, using this method the experiment was done in almost 24 hours which is not exactly the required time for the experiment, which may result in having different data which can result in having wrong results and data, so in the next time the experiment must be done using a timer to get the accurate data and the correct results.

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite having some limitations in this experiment such as receiving data which is not fully accurate, if you focus on you will see that there are many things to learn in this experiment. In which this experiment gives a picture of diffusion, especially osmosis which can be seen clearly in the potato cores, and this experiment has been done separately which can teach us on how to depend on ourselves . That's not all, this experiment is a great way to learn from mistakes, in which in this experiment there are several limitations which can be improved in the next time to develop scientific investigations if they were dealt with it in the right way. Last but not least, to be better people should learn from these mistakes and to achieve this there are reflections that must be done on the actions and decisions to get improved in next times.

References

The images I have used:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=Aw...

The experiment data:

Due to the quarantine and our current situation with COVID- 19, I was not able to perform the experiment by my own So Instead I searched and found data for an experiment which has the same topic that I am working on.(video in the bottom):