Lab #9 – The Cell and its Organelles
Problem
How are plant cells and animal cells
both similar and different?
Hypothesis
Materials
I will supply: 2 zip-loc bags: inner bag = cell membrane
1 loose plastic bag: outer bag = cell wall
1 loose plastic bag: outer bag = cell wall
Oil (cytoplasm)
red beans, red and black beads (organelles)
green beads (chloroplasts)
clay or balloon (nucleus)
green beads (chloroplasts)
clay or balloon (nucleus)
water (vacuole)
Please bring: uncooked pasta, candy, uncooked rice, get creative!
Please bring: uncooked pasta, candy, uncooked rice, get creative!
Procedure
Step 1
Pour vegetable oil into one of your Ziploc bags until it’s about half full. The vegetable oil represents the cell’s cytoplasm.
Step 2
Add a piece of cauliflower to the bag. This will be your nucleus.
Step 3
Place three or four mandarin oranges as mitochondria and three or four green grapes as chloroplasts in the bag.
Step 4
Pour water into a balloon until it is two or three times the size of your nucleus bouncy ball. Tie the end of the balloon and place it in the Ziploc. This will serve as the vacuole, a fluid-filled space within the cell.
Step 5
Add several pieces of pipe cleaner as endoplasmic reticulum.
Step 6
Add a piece of ribbon candy to represent the Golgi apparatus and a small marble for the centrosome.
Step 7
Sprinkle in a small handful of sesame seeds. These will represent the cell’s ribosomes.
Step 8
Add more vegetable oil to the bag, if needed, until it is fairly full but still has plenty of give. Close the bag.
Step 9
Maneuver the organelles so they are spread throughout the bag. Make sure your centrisome and Golgi apparatus end up near the nucleus, as this is how they’re situated in a real cell.
Step 10
Place the bag inside your second Ziploc bag. If it doesn’t fit easily, pour out oil until it does.
Step 11
Drizzle a little bit of oil in the space between the two bags. This represents the cell membrane, a thin, semi-permeable membrane between the cell wall and the rest of the cell. Close up the second bag.
Don’t forget to label your Ziploc
bags (Cell Membrane) for BOTH plant and animal cells.
Results
Animal Cell
|
Plant Cell
|
Analysis
- Compare/Contrast your plant and animal cells.
- Predict what would happen to a plant cell if it were to lose its
chloroplasts.
- Explain the importance of the nucleus in both cells.
4.
On your gel cells,
what is representing the cell membrane? How is the cell membrane like
your skin?
_____________________________________________
5.
Create your own model of an animal
and/or a plant cell. What materials
would you use? Make a list of what is
going to represent the following: cytoplasm, cell membrane, nucleus,
organelles, cell wall, chloroplasts.
Conclusion
