Special surface areas for exchange

Starter: Why are some organisms Multi cellular unicellular and others multi cellular?
Unicellular

Explain, in terms of surface area : volume ratio, why multicellular organisms need specialised exchange surfaces and single-celled organisms do not

Practical Activity 10: Effect of surface area : volume ratio on diffusion rate
Purpose: To calculate surface-area-to-volume ratio (SA:V) To show the effect of surface-area-tovolume ratio on the diffusion rate of hydrochloric acid
1. Conduct practical 2. Draw graph 3. Answer questions

Homework
Produce a perfect graph from your experiment Answer all questions Find out 4 different exchange surfaces found in the animal kingdom. (name structure function)

Prediction should link the diffusion rate and the increased or reduced surface-area-to-volume ratio. Key factors controlled should include: temperature shape of the block size of block immersion method volume of acid used the depth of acid used the type of agar. Reliability can be assessed by repeating the task at least twice and taking an average. A decrease in surface-area-to-volume ratio causes a reduction in the rate of diffusion. In living organisms this is important since larger animals have a smaller SA:V ratio and will be unable to obtain enough nutrients and oxygen by diffusion alone. Limitations include: difficulty in cutting and measuring accurately difficulty in maintaining a constant shape difficulty in determining the exact end point when relying on the eye to judge the moment the pink colour disappears the blocks may float thereby affecting the diffusion rate, as they will be incompletely submersed.

Answers

How Surface area : Volume ratio affects diffusion rate

To calculate rate of diffusion :distance to centre/time taken
Rate of diffusion mm3s-1

Your graph should show as SA:V decreases, rate of diffusion also decreases

To calculate SA: V ratio just divide SA by V 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

SA:V ratio

Surface area to volume ratio

copy and complete
As the length of side of a cube increases, the ratio of the surface area to volume __________. decreases smaller There is a ____________ SURFACE AREA per unit of VOLUME. As organisms increase in size, there is a ___________ decrease in the surface area to volume ratio; there is an increase in bulk of the organism. The distance over which diffusion occurs becomes __________ and therefore the greater diffusion becomes ___________! slower

Complete the worksheet

Exchange
In all organisms, to enable them to function correctly (MRS GREN) they need to take in raw materials and remove waste products, therefore the rate of diffusion needs to be quick Materials which need to be exchanged with the environment and the organism Respiratory gases eg. oxygen Nutrients eg. vitamins Excretory products eg. faeces
Complete Ficks Law worksheet

How do multicellular organisms get past this SA:V problem?

Homework
Finish Fick's law Re do any graphs that weren't up to scratch Make a glossary of at least 20 key words from page 42-48