Science Course Work
Effects Of Salt Water On Plant Cells
Plan
I plan to investigate the effect of a salt –water concentration will have on a plant cell. I am going to use potatoes to test if it has any effect by investigating if their size changes after being in the concentration for a period of time. The amount of salt in the concentration is one variable that could affect the experiment but there are others that I must keep the same to ensure accurate results. I must try to keep the temperature as level as possible as a higher temperature will speed up the reaction. I am going to perform each experiment twice and then find an average change. This is to make the experiments results more reliable. The process I am investigating is called osmosis. The definition of osmosis is the diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane from a high water concentration to another.
Prediction
I predict that if there is a low concentration of salt in the water there will be more diffusion and the cells will get bigger. There will be more diffusion because the salt will use up some of the water on one side of the membrane and the water levels become unequal. This causes the water molecules to change from one side to the other. If there is little salt in the water the chip will get bigger because it will draw in more water and will become swollen. When like this the cell is called turgid. The opposite happens when there is a high concentration of salt in the water. The cell is called flaccid when this happens.
