Science students at Vestal Middle School have been exploring cell permeability with the Naked Egg Lab for many years. Conducted over a series of days, this lab provides an opportunity for seventh-graders to test the inquiry "Does the external environment affect the internal environment of a cell?"
To find out, the students immersed eggs in a variety of solutions - vinegar, corn syrup and water. Before immersions, they gathered data and made hypotheses about the effect each solution would have on the eggs. After each stage, they would weigh their subjects, make observations about how the eggs had changed, and record the results. On March 1, seventh-graders in Mrs. Emmons' class took their eggs out of the corn syrup, recorded the changes, made hypotheses about what the next solution would do and placed them into water. A photo gallery from this class is included below.