Materials
- 1 raw potato
- 1 boiled potato (cooled to room temperature)
- Salt
- Potato peeler
- Spoon
- Shallow tray or dish
- Water
Instructions
- With adult supervision, use a potato peeler to peel both potatoes completely.
- Use a spoon to scoop out a small cavity in the center of each potato, creating a shallow cup.
- Place the potatoes in a tray. Add water to the tray until it surrounds the potatoes but does not flood the cavities.
- Put the same amount of salt into the cavity of each potato.
- Leave the setup undisturbed for 30–60 minutes.
- Observe and compare what happens inside the cavities of the raw and boiled potatoes.
What’s going on?
- Potato cells are surrounded by membranes that control the movement of water. Water moves across these membranes by osmosis.
- In the raw potato, salt creates a high-salt environment in the cavity. Water moves out of the potato cells into the cavity, causing liquid to collect.
- In the boiled potato, heat damages the cell membranes. Because the membranes no longer function properly, osmosis does not occur in the same way, so little or no liquid collects.
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