Osmosis and Gummy Bears are not typically heard in the same sentence. However, the biology students combined the two into a lab. Their purpose was to investigate the movement of water into and out of a polymer.
Why gummy bears? Gummy Bears are made of gelatin and sugar, and since gelatin is a polymer, it acts in a similar way to a cell membrane when controlling how water moves in and out of a Gummy Bear.
The students sought out to answer the research question: Will soaking Gummy Bears in tap water affect the size and/or mass of a Gummy Bear? First, they had to write a hypothesis and state their initial reasoning before enacting the procedure.
The procedure required the students to find the mass, length, width, and height of two Gummy Bears. With these measurements, they calculated the volume and recorded their data. Then, they submerged the Gummy Bear underwater in a cup and let them soak overnight. On the next day, the students used a fork to remove the Gummy Bear and recalculated the volume.
After the overnight task, the students were asked to answer reflection questions based on their observations of the Gummy Bear and water over the two days. This osmosis and gelatin snack lab turned out to be very revealing to the biology students.