Cell Project

Osmosis Egg Lab

To learn about the process of osmosis, our class did an osmosis egg lab. In this lab we had three eggs that were all soaked in vinegar for the past day. After we first took them out we took the measurements of each, and then we put each egg into a different liquid. The first liquid being water, the second being vinegar again, and the third being Karo syrup. We let the eggs sit in these liquids for another day and examined them the next class period. After taking the eggs out a second time, we took each of their measurements again. The egg that was put into water had grown in mass by about sixteen percent. This was due to the fact that the water was a hypotonic solution which wanted to get through the semi permeable membrane into the egg. The second egg, which was put into vinegar, stayed almost the same mass with only a nine percent increase. Since the egg had already been sitting in vinegar the day before, there was already vinegar in the egg, so the vinegar acted as an isotonic solution. The last egg, that had been put into Karo syrup, had decrease in mass by about thirty five percent. This last egg shrunk because the Karo syrup had a higher concentration, so all the vinegar and water left the egg. The syrup in this case acted as a hypertonic solution. Through this lab we could see the three different types of solutions, and how osmosis works in cells, for our own eyes.

Prokaryotic Vs. eukaryotic Cells

Prokaryotic Cell: a microscopic single-celled organism that has neither a distinct nucleus with a membrane nor other specialized organelles.

Eukaryotic Cell: an organism consisting of a cell or cells in which the genetic material is DNA in the form of chromosomes contained within a distinct nucleus.

Each of these two cells are made up of different components that all have different functions. The following are the list of the components each cell has, of which we studied.

Animal Vs. plant cells

Animal Cell: a type of eukaryotic cell that dominates most of the tissue cells in animals. Animal cells are different from plant cells because they don't have cell walls and chloroplasts, which are relevant to plant cells.

Plant Cell: a type of eukaryotic cell that are found in the organisms within the Plant Kingdom.

Both of these types of eukaryotic cells are made up with different components that all have different functions. The following is the list of all the components we studied, that each cell had.

Reflection

When working on our poster and even our osmosis egg lab, we could have planned ahead and aimed for a better final result. Throughout our time working together as a group we could have implemented more critical thinking to generate more success for our projects. For example, with our cell project poster, we should have planned the positioning of our entire poster before starting to draw anything. Since we did not, and we had to jam in certain parts of the drawing like the cell membrane at the end, making the poster very clustered. Our lack of critical thinking led to a project with not the exact outcome we had wished for.

Although the finished result of the poster was a little clustered, our group worked hard to get it done with all the right requirements. Even if we could have planned out the positioning of a few drawings and descriptions better, our group worked very well together. I believe that not just me but our entire group was able to collaborate very well with each other and all contribute the same amount of effort to contribute to our success. When working throughout the cell poster project and the osmosis egg lab, everyone divided up to work on different jobs and finish the assignments more efficiently. Everyone in our group was also very willing to do theses jobs and help the group succeed.