Magic Egg Shells
Students in Mrs. Haberman’s 11th-grade AP Biology class participated in a fun and fascinating lab last week. To study the effects of osmosis, diffusion, and hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic solutions, they removed the shells of chicken eggs! First, they soaked them in vinegar – this was like removing the “cell wall” and keeping only the “plasma membrane.” They then soaked the eggs in different solutions to investigate the tonicity. When they put the eggs in water, they expanded, and when they put the ends in syrup, they shriveled. “The students were fascinated by this lab,” says Mrs. Haberman. “Many of them went on to independently perform their own experiments with the eggs and materials from class. It was a lot of fun!”
