Name: __________________________________ Date: _____________________________

Diffusion Through a Membrane Part 3: Home Work Assignment

Directions: This is a homework assignment to be completed in your lab notebook.
Write each question and provide an answer based upon your completion of the Diffusion
Through a Membrane lab activities. Your previous three lab reports (Microscopes II,
Diffusion Pt. 1, and Diffusion Pt. 2) will provide you with information to help form your
answers.
Questions:
1. During Part 2 of this activity, one group of students followed the directions incorrectly.
They poured Iodine or starch indicator into the cell and filled the beaker with starch and
glucose solution. State how their results would be different from those that were
obtained by students who followed the directions correctly. 10pts
2. Some state roads are salted heavily during the winter, creating an environmental problem
for small organisms. Based on your observations of plant cells in different concentrations
of salt water, explain how small organisms might be affected by the high levels of salt
being added to their environment. 10pts
3. When a person in the hospital is given fluid intravenously (an I.V.), the fluid is typically
a saline (salt) solution with about the same water concentration as human body tissues.
Explain how the use of distilled water (salt free) in place of this saline solution would
disrupt the patients homeostasis. Be sure to refer to the process of diffusion. 10pts
4. Many fresh-water one-celled organisms have structures called contractile vacuoles.
These structures collect and pump out excess water that accumulates in the cell.
a. Name the process that causes water to flow into these organisms. 5pts
b. Explain why these structures would be of little value to one-celled organisms
living in the ocean (salt water). 5pts
5. Popcorn sold at most movie theaters is very salty, causing people to become thirsty and
buy soft drinks. Describe in scientific terms why the salty popcorn causes this thirst.
You should mention changes in specific body cells in your answer. 10pts
6. In many animals, glucose rather than starch is transported by blood to all cells of the
body. Starches in many foods are digested to yield glucose. Based on what you learned
in the Microscopes II activity, explain why the digestion of starch to glucose is necessary.
10pts
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