Today, students reviewed the different organelles in the cell by playing the following game on their ThinkPads: goo.gl/iHUcy. We also talked about a project that we will start tomorrow, where students will go around the school and take pictures of things that are analogous to the cell organelles.

Students read the following story and identified which organelles of the cell went with the underlined words. 

Cell City Analogy:

In a far away city called Grant City, the main export and production product is the steel widget. Everyone in the town has something to do with steel widget making and the entire town is designed to build and export widgets. The town hall has the instructions for widget making, widgets come in all shapes and sizes and any citizen of Grant can get the instructions and begin making their own widgets. Widgets are generally produced in small shops around the city, these small shops can be built by the carpenter's union (whose headquarters are in town hall).

After the widget is constructed, they are placed on special carts which can deliver the widget anywhere in the city. In order for a widget to be exported, the carts take the widget to the postal office, where the widgets are packaged and labeled for export. Sometimes widgets don't turn out right, and the "rejects" are sent to the scrap yard where they are broken down for parts or destroyed altogether. The town powers the widget shops and carts from a hydraulic dam that is in the city. The entire city is enclosed by a large wooden fence, only the postal trucks (and citizens with proper passports) are allowed outside the city.

Match the parts of the city (underlined) with the parts of the cell.

1. Mitochondria	___________________
2. Ribosomes	___________________
3. Nucleus	___________________
4. Endoplasmic Reticulum	___________________
5. Golgi Apparatus	___________________
6. Protein	___________________
7. Cell Membrane	___________________
8. Lysosomes	___________________
9. Nucleolus	___________________

Students learned about diffusion and how molecules tend to move from higher concentrations to lower concentrations. We talked about how this relates to the cell membrane and our corn starch lab which we started Friday.

Students finished making observations of an egg that we placed in vinegar and corn syrup at the beginning of the week. We discussed how the outside of the egg has a permeable cell membrane that allows material in and out. We then finished notes on plant and animal cells.

 

Students continued taking notes over the organelles inside cells today.

Students took notes over the different organelles inside cells.

Today, students learned about cellular respiration. We looked at the following diagram and answered some questions.




We did a quick experiment to demonstrate that we exhale carbon dioxide.

1. What is the purpose of respiration...why do cells

need to breathe?

2. What gas do animal cells take in when they breathe?

3. What gas do animal cells release when they breathe?

4. What do animal cells use oxygen for?

5. What gas do plants take in when they breathe?

6. What gas do plants release when they breathe?

7. What do plants use carbon dioxide for? 

We are beginning to learn about plant and animal cells. I began dissolving an egg in vinegar to show that an egg is a cell. We then filled out a Venn diagram noting the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells. 

Students reviewed for their microscope test tomorrow and looked at some animal cells underneath the microscope.


Study Guide:

Students are learning about the differences and similarities between animal and plant cells.  Today we looked at a stained slide using onion cells. Students created a drawing of the plant cell and described what it looked like. 

Students looked at prepared slides under the microscope today. Some of the things they looked at included mouse hair, frog muscles, and sea urchin eggs,

Some students were able to look at pond water underneath the microscope today and see a variety of microbes. The rest of the class worked on a virtual lab.

Today, we talked about how to sketch microorganisms that we see underneath the microscope. We also set up our notebooks for a lab tomorrow.