Today we completed the Edible Cell Challenge! Our goal was to create a model of an animal cell, as scientifically accurate as possible, using common pizza toppings. They all successfully incorporated the nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria, Golgi bodies, endoplasmic reticulum, lysosome, and vacuoles. We even saw a few “extras”, including differentiating between the smooth and rough endoplasmic reticulum, adding in the nucleolus and chromatin, and showing secretion and pinocytic vesicles. They did a great job using their creativity and thinking about scale, number (example: cells have multiple mitochondria but only one nucleus each), and shape, along with thinking about the function of each organelle. They each presented their cells to the group, telling which toppings they used for which organelle and why (this was great practice pronouncing the names of the organelles, which can be challenging).
While the pizzas were baking, we talked a little bit about the cell membrane, pulling out the trusty pipe cleaner macromolecules to illustrate. We reviewed the meaning of hydrophobic/hydrophilic, talked about how the cell membrane is a semi-permeable phospholipid bilayer, and thought about the significance of the phospholipid’s structural/chemical properties (hydrophilic phosphate “head”, hydrophobic fatty acid “tails”) in the structure and function of the cell membrane, specifically how it can self repair after being broken apart to allow things in and out of the cell. We touched briefly on glycoproteins and glycolipids, and how proteins spanning the width of the cell membrane can act as active transport sites (as opposed to passive transport, which requires no energy).
Next, we tackled the topic of cellular respiration. It is a very complex process that can be a little intimidating, but the girls rocked it! We started with a video that gave an overview of cellular respiration, then took a pizza break. ☺️🍕 After everyone was fortified (Cellular respiration at work! Food –> Energy!), we tackled the big hairy-scary flow chart worksheet, which seemed a lot less scary already after watching the video.
————————————————————————-Notes from questions that came up in today’s lab:
- Golgi body, Golgi Apparatus, and Golgi Complex are all referring to the same thing (I was mistaken – I thought there was a subtle difference, but there’s not. The names are interchangeable.)
- Glycoproteins CAN be active transport sites (I double checked)
- The Krebs Cycle should NOT have an apostrophe! It is actually an exception to the rule – even though Sir Hans Krebs discovered it (So it was a name! And the original name does end with an s!) it is spelled *Krebs* rather than *Krebs’*. Thank you for pointing that out, Caroline! I apologize for the inconsistency among the downloaded worksheets – the dangers of copying and pasting off the internet.
Next week we begin Module 7 – Cellular Reproduction and DNA! We will be doing experiment 7.1 and also discussing protein synthesis (transcription and translation).
To work on for next week:
- Begin reading Module 7, answering the “on your own” questions as you go
- Read experiment 7.1