Unit Three Reflection

This unit was about organelles in the cell and what they do. This unit was also about how photosynthesis and cellular respiration works. I remembered how photosynthesis works the best because I had learned a lot about it before. I was okay at remembering cellular respiration, for I had also learned about it before, but not as much as photosynthesis and not as in depth as I learned about it now. Remembering what each organelle does was probably the hardest to remember because even though I learned a lot about them before, there are just so many of them that do so much that it's hard to hold on to all that information.
I learned a lot about how cells work, and how plants, animals, and even I function. It was also interesting experimenting on the egg, using it as a substitute for a cell, and really seeing up close how cells work.
I want to learn more about other systems that organelles make up, like the digestive system. But for the test I will use flashcards are rewrite what I had learn to reinforce the information in my mind.

Egg Diffusion Lab

 In this lab, we put one egg in sugar water and another in normal water, which was the control. We then waited a couple of days to see what would happen. 

 When there was a high concentration of sugar water, outside the egg, or when there was a hypertonic solution, water left the egg through the egg membrane through the process of passive diffusion. Because water left the egg, the egg's mass and circumference shrunk. Water was the solvent and the sugar was the solute. In my group's experiment, our mass decreased by 52% and our circumference decreased by 20.6%.

A cell's internal and external environment changes often through diffusion. It changes to achieve equilibrium. Vinegar made the egg gain water, water made the egg grow even more, while sugar made the egg shrink.

 This lab shows how cells react to hypertonic and hypotonic solutions that it is in. For example, when there is a low concentration of sugar water, or in our case just water, the cell and the egg reacts by taking in that water and expanding to reach equilibrium. This is one of the things I learned in class.

 Vegetables are sprinkled with water so they will absorb it due to diffusion and keep it fresh. The plants along the roadside would release water due to the high concentration of salt to achieve equilibrium.

I would want to test limp celery and other vegetables in water to see if it would grow. This would be helpful because sometimes I have vegetables for too long and they start to go limp.