PolyToday: Spud-tacular Science

Who knew a plain potato could teach us so much about cells? In a recent bio lab, Upper School students soaked potato pieces in six different sugar concentrations—ranging from pure water up to 1.0 M sucrose—to explore osmosis in action. By measuring the mass before and after 24 hours, students watched an invisible cellular process play out right at their lab stations. They’ll now plot a best-fit line to find the point where there is no change in mass, identifying the exact sugar concentration where the potato cells reach equilibrium (isotonicity).