Inquiry With Potatoes

A traditional lab on osmosis, turns into a student oriented inquiry. Simple materials include water, salt, potatoes and other vegetables. See http://www.wetheteachers.com/plan.php?id=37 for a discussion of general technique used to produce this activity and others like it.

Problem that might arise from this activity: Students fail to internalize the fact that they are dealing with potato cells. You might want to do some very thin slices of potatoes and let them look at these under the microscope. Most students will think the starch granuals they see are the cells. They will have to look carefully to see the cell walls or you can use a stain for the cell walls.

from 2 votes