Gummy Bear Lab

Solution Effect on Gummy Bear/Cell Size

What are the effects of different solutions on the size of a cell? To find a solution this problem my group conducted an experiment/lab. The variables changed (Independent Variable) were the solutions, and the results were the change in size of the gummy bear/cell (Dependant Variable). The control group,to compare our results, was a gummy bear that was not put into any solution. The standardized variables were the color of the gummy bear, the same brand of cup, the amount of solution in each cup, and the amount of time each gummy bear spent in the solution.

The materials my group used were three identical plastic cups, four gummy bears of the same color, one plastic spoon, one roll wax paper, one sharpie marker, one roll plastic wrap, one graduated cylinder, 25 mL super saturated salt solution, 25 mL distilled water, 25 mL 80% sugar solution, and one 12 inch ruler. The procedure my group made follows these steps.

As a safety precaution make sure to be careful moving and pouring the solutions to prevent spills, as to not make their measurements inaccurate and contaminate the lab environment.

Measure the length, width, and depth of one gummy bear on wax paper with the ruler.

Label the cups to with the sharpie to correspond with the three solutions, supersaturated salt, distilled water, and 80% sugar solution.

Place each gummy bear into each labeled cup

Add 25mL of each solution to the corresponding cup.

Cover the top of each cup with enough plastic wrap to prevent evaporation.

Wait 24 hours to let the solution react with the gummy bear

Remove plastic wrap/tinfoil.

Remove gummy bear from each cup with the plastic spoon and place on wax paper

Record the length, width, and depth of the gummy bear (Quantitative) along with the color of the bears (Qualitative). Record this data in a data table after the first 24 hour

cycle.
In conclusion in this lab one can learn about the effect of osmosis, a process by which molecules of a solvent pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated, on the size of a cell. In this lab the distilled water was a hypotonic solution to the cell, it had a lower osmotic pressure than a particular fluid, and the cell grew while it was placed in the hypotonic solution. The hypertonic solution in this lab, which is when having a solution has a higher osmotic pressure than a particular fluid, is the super saturated salt solution, a cell would shrink in this solution. The isotonic solution, when two solutions have the same osmotic pressure, in this lab is the 80% sugar solution, a cell in this solution would stay the same size. If one of the gummy bears was a plant cell that needed to fill the central vacuole the best solution to place it in would be a hypotonic solution because the solution will cause the cell to grow filling the vacuole. The solution necessary to keep human cells from popping or shriveling up is an isotonic solution because an isotonic solution keeps the concentration of fluids on each side of a membrane the same.