What explains the result?
Water crosses the egg membrane toward the side with more dissolved particles; the membrane is a model, not a perfect cell membrane.
LIFE SCIENCE · GRADES 5–9
The shell-less egg: osmosis
INVESTIGATION QUESTIONHow does the surrounding liquid change an egg's mass?
● ILLUSTRATIVE SCIENCE MODEL
ENGLISH CAPTIONS
Prepare the shell-less egg. A shell-less egg is ready for a controlled soak; handle raw egg with clean hands or gloves.
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Where does this matter?
Osmosis helps explain how cells exchange water and why food preservation uses concentrated salt or sugar.
What should you keep in mind?
Egg size, membrane damage, blotting pressure, and soak time change real measurements. The displayed values are a teaching model.
FIELD INVESTIGATION 01 · LIFE SCIENCE · GRADES 5–9
The shell-less egg: water in, water out
Place two membrane-covered eggs in different solutions, predict what will happen, wait through a modeled 24-hour soak, then measure and explain the change.
EXPERIMENT BENCH
PHASE 01 / 06Same membrane. Different outside solution.
Corn syrup
High solute · lower water outside
EGG A · WAITINGSELECTIVELY
PERMEABLE
MEMBRANEH₂O ⇄
PERMEABLE
MEMBRANEH₂O ⇄
Plain water
Lower solute · more water outside
EGG B · WAITINGTHE SCIENCE IN ONE MINUTE
Why did the two eggs change differently?
The membrane allows water through more readily than the large sugar molecules in corn syrup. Water moves in both directions, but the concentration gradient determines the net direction. In the syrup cup, the outside solution has less available water, so the egg loses water and mass. In plain water, the net movement is inward. The exact mass change depends on egg size, membrane condition, soak time and solution concentration.