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good ideas for HL Bio IA on osmosis


sofias96

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Hey guys, I was assigned my first IA for HL bio today, and it has to be on osmosis. The topic is "What is the effect of variable X on osmosis rate?" however, the teacher said that it doesn't necessarily have to be about osmosis rate.

I have some ideas so far, but I'm new to HL bio (well, bio in general, since I was in HL economics before) and I need some help and guidance in regards to good titles and labs for this topic.

My ideas so far are:

-Osmosis rates on different vegetables (potato, cabbage, idk.)

-Osmosis rate for potato slices of different sizes (one with more surface area, etc.)

-Osmosis rate on 3 different slices of potatoes (or any other vegetable/etc. that works) with the same mass/surface area on different solutes (such as sucrose, NaCl, etc.)

Right I've only written these three ideas down but I'll keep doing some research and coming up with new ideas... can anyone help me? any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Edited by sofias96
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I don't like your first idea because it seems to be too qualitative, not quantitative.

Your second idea sounds good; personally I would cut the potatoes into an "even" shape (if you see what I mean: something like a cylinder, cube, cuboid) to make the surface area calculation much easier. To measure how much the mass of each potato has changed you can weigh it before and after.

Your third idea is good too. Although I don't you should use different solutions, but increase solute concentration instead so that the results are once again more quantitative (I say this because you need to be able to graph your results).

And of course, for whichever idea you opt for, don't forget the controlled variables!

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Well! I would also add the idea of changing the concentration of the solution you place your test subject in and how it affects its size. You could even do this in a microscopic level and measure using a microscope scale (some microscopes have these).

The one you said about different vegetables, I'm guessing is about 'Osmotic potential'.

Actually, Osmosis lab reports are usually used as practice for further, more interesting stuff. You should plan something that is simple enough and that you can write a nice report on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yeah, I got the exact same task for my first bio IA. What I plan to do is also using potato. The independent variable is the salt water concentration and the dependent is the mass of the potato. I decided to cut my potato into cube so that the surface area will be the same

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  • 6 years later...

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