Gummy Bears and Osmosis! || Biology

Lately, in biology, we have been looking at cell transport. However, today we are doing an experiment reflecting on osmosis... but with GUMMY BEARS!!

Osmosis is a process of diffusion that relies on water movement to reach equilibrium in a solution(so the concentrations even out). An example of this is placing a beaker with a semi-permeable membrane in the centre of it. The glucose molecules are too big to pass through, so the water moves along the membrane to the higher-concentrated side to make both sides isotonic to each other.

Hypertonic - High

Hypotonic - Low

Isotonic - Equilibrium/the same/equal

High concentration of water > Low

Low concentration of solute > High

Solute - the substance that gets dissolved.

Solvent - the substance that does the dissolving.

Solution - the substance that forms as a result of the two(solvent and solute) coming together.

Hypothesis:

For the sugar solution, where sugar is the solute and water is the solvent, I think the gummy bear might absorb some water, but the sugar won't be able to go through since the membrane we are using is the outside of the gummy bear. The water may not have to travel that much to achieve equilibrium. Overall, I believe the gummy bear will remain the same size.

For the salt solution, where salt is the solute and water is the solvent, I think(Not completely sure!) the gummy bear might shrink since there will be a lack of concentration of sugar in the water. The gummy bear may release the water content inside of it. Salt cannot pass through a membrane on its own.

For the plain water solution, the gummy bear will most likely absorb the water, swell up and become larger. Before absorption, it will be hypertonic to the water, since the gummy bear will have higher sugar contents compared to the water.

Observations (next day):

In the sugar AND water solutions, the gummy bear grew a considerable amount, which supports my hypothesis for the plain water solution. It was incorrect regarding the sugar, in which it grew about the same amount as the water one. This means that the material inside of the gummy bear was hypertonic compared to the plain water and presumably was also hypertonic compared to the water in the sugar solution.

However, the salt solution did not shrink or grow. It had stayed the same size completely. This means that the solution inside the gummy bear was hypotonic to the water solution, meaning it had less concentration compared to the water.