Passive Transport

Passive Transport

Main Ideas and Information

- It requires no energy or ATP

- It moves in the direction from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration

- This transport moves with the concentration gradient

- It includes two types:

  - Diffusion: It describes the movement of material other than water from an high to low concentration without the use of energy.

  - Osmosis: It refers to the movement of water molecules from an high to low concentration without the use of energy.

- Materials that can easily enter and exit the cell through the passive transports of diffusion include oxygen and carbon dioxide and water through osmosis.

- You can describe the passive transport of osmosis with three types of solutions:

   - Isotonic: describes water moving in and out of a cell at the same rate causing the cell to stay the same in size.

   - Hypertonic: describes water moving out of the cell causing a cell to shrink or compress

   - Hypotonic: describes water moving into a cell causing it to expand, swell and eventually burst with the large amount of water

Pictures and Animations

Helpful Videos of Passive Transport

- https://www.brainpop.com/science/cellularlifeandgenetics/passivetransport/

- https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/membranes-and-transport/passive-transport/v/passive-transport-and-selective-permeability

- https://vimeo.com/6707239

Reflection:

Passive Transport was a topic I already knew but doing this for a blog helped me review its material for the EOC and it allowed me to clarify my doubts. Before, when this type of transport was taught to me, I still didn't understand the concentration gradient and how water would move to where the concentration gradient of salt or substance was higher. However, after I did research for this blog, I realized that water moved to where the concentration gradient of salt was higher, because that area was where water molecules were less in number. I liked this topic of passive transport, because it let me understand what an important job our plasma membrane plays for our body, letting me function each day. Something new that I learned from doing this blog was that in diffusion, there is a type of movement called facilitated diffusion where molecules sometimes have to pass through the cell membrane by transmembrane integral proteins.

It surprised me that if we drink too much water, then our cells end up in an hypotonic solution where they could possibly burst. I always thought that a lot of water was good for us and it couldn't possibly harm us but after reviewing hypotonic solutions, I finally saw the damage of what too much water to our bodies could do. Also, passive transport can be identified outside of biology through making a Kool-aid. When you put Kool-aid mix into a cup of water, the mix is at a high concentration at the top of the water surface. However, without the use of energy, the molecules of the mix slowly start to diffuse throughout the water where the mix concentration was less. This is an example of diffusion where no energy was used and the direction was from a high to low concentration. 

Citations:

-  "Facilitated Diffusion - Biology-Online Dictionary". Biology-online.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 May 2017.

- "Home". Science with The Amoeba Sisters. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 May 2017.

- "Membrane Transport Passive - Lessons - Tes Teach". Tes Teach with Blendspace. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 May 2017.

- "Redirect Notice". Google.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 May 2017.