Nathan Bennett – D6
Osmosis in potatoes
Problem: Investigation on how changing concentration of
Sucrose effects osmosis in potatoes.
Scientific Knowledge
To understand osmosis, we first need to understand diffusion as osmosis is a special type of diffusion. Diffusion is when gas particles move at random from where they are in high concentration to where they are in a lower concentration, until the particles are evenly spread. The process of diffusion is how we can smell an open bottle of perfume from the other side of the room.
This is a preview of the whole essay
Peer Reviews
Here's what a star student thought of this essay
Quality of writing
The style of writing is of a good standard. It is cogent and manages to convey concepts with the use of diagrams. It was pleasing to see they didn't overuse the first person. This is a common hinderance when moving from KS3 to GCSE, where students say "I am going to", "I found that" when addressing experiments.
Level of analysis
The analysis of osmosis is basic. It would be recommended to discuss the movement of water molecules in reference to water potential: water molecules move from an area of high water potential to an area of low water potential, down the water potential gradient. Analysis such as this would be key to accessing higher marks. Without the use of data and graphs, there is little analysis in this piece. If a set of data was collected, a sucrose concentration could have then be identified where the potato has no net gain in weight. Displaying skills like this will show a full understanding of osmosis, whereas the knowledge here seems superficial.
Response to question
This piece of coursework offers a basic understanding of osmosis, addressing the knowledge required in basic terms. Yet, it does not sufficiently engage with the question. The question implies that data should be collected first, experimenting with varying concentrations of sucrose. If this piece had data to display the trends claimed, it would be easier to answer the question. It is also key to note that the question refers to potatoes - in this case, it is recommended to place the question in context: potatoes are not mentioned once in this piece.
