AP Bio’s Jello Lab

by Colleen Worrell, Secondary Technology Integration Coordinator

 
Michelle Odierna’s AP Bio classes are having fun learning with jello this week. The jiggly blocks of pink are part of a lab on the limitations of cell size. As I visited the class, students were happy to explain that they were working in groups to learn how molecules diffuse through the cell membrane and the cell’s surface area limits how large cells can get. The lab assignment posed this question to the student teams: “If you put each of the [jello] blocks into a solution, into which block would that solution diffuse throughout the entire block fastest? Slowest? How do you explain the difference?”

Each group of students worked together to plan, design, conduct, and document their investigation. The pink jello would be cut into different size cubes, added to a beaker, and covered in an acidic solution so the students could measure the rate of diffusion. Along the way students would record the procedures, claims, observations, and data. At least one student in each group had a laptop open and worked to add relevant information to a shared Google doc. They worked collaboratively, asking questions, finding answers, sharing ideas on steps to take, joking about jello (and the inability of certain students to cut a straight line in a piece of jello!), and determining what information they might need to successfully complete and record their lab. Students also used their phones to take photos (before and after images of their jello cubes) which they would use as data to support their claims in the lab reports each of them would write up.

Conversations happened throughout as students wrestled with pink jello, typed in their Google docs, measured their cubes, and tackled calculations to support their claims:

“Will a lopsided cube work?”

“Does it have to be perfect?”

“This is the best cube you’ve made yet.”

“Mrs. O, do we need to know how much acid is in the beaker?”

“Make sure you are putting this on the Google doc and it is shared with everybody.”

“Would it be easier to cut of the clear part and just measure the pink part that’s left”?

“I can’t grab it. It’s jello!”

“Can I try that?”

“Absolutely, it’s fun.”

“Hey, take a picture of that with my phone for me.”

"What was the final dimension?”

Students negotiated slippery cubes of pink jello, laptops, smartphones, and plastic rulers throughout these conversations, all the while learning about diffusion and osmosis. "Ms. O," one student remarked, "This is fun."

Next step: writing up their lab individual reports. Keeping with the science lab theme of this post, my claim is that students won’t find this part half as fun the lab itself.