BiologyCode 9700
Movement into and out of cells
What this topic asks you to be able to do
- describe and explain these processes: osmosis, simple and facilitated diffusion, active transport, exocytosis and endocytosis
- investigate osmosis and simple diffusion with plant tissue and with non-living materials, including agar and dialysis (Visking) tubing
- illustrate, by working out the volume and surface area of simple 3-D shapes, the principle that the surface area to volume ratio gets smaller as size increases (see the Mathematical requirements)
- investigate, using agar blocks of several sizes, how diffusion is affected when the surface area to volume ratio changes
- investigate what happens when plant tissue is placed into solutions with varying water potentials, and use the findings to estimate the water potential inside the tissue
- account for how water travels between cells and solutions using water potential, and account for the contrasting outcomes of this water movement in plant cells versus animal cells (a grasp of solute potential or pressure potential is not required)