Cells!

We finished up our work with Darwin and evolution and now have move onto the wonderful world of cells, the basic unit of all life! I mean can you GET anything more exciting!?

We started off learning about the animal cell and ALL it's organelles!

We reviewed a detailed diagram of the cell and talked about each of the organelles and what their major function was inside the cell.

Time for the boys to draw their own diagram.

I drew mine on the board... not bad.

Then we did an activity comparing the parts of a cell to the parts of a factory and got to make analogies between the two! For example the nucleus is like the CEO because it controls what goes on in the factory!

At the end of the week we made edible cells...wait what?

Yes... delicious edible cells made out of different foods that represent the different parts of the cell. Here Daltini is holding up a clementine, also known as a nucleus!

The plastic bag we made our cells in served as the cell membrane. Then we added jello, which of course is the cytoplasm! The sprinkles are the ribosomes. This cell sure is going to make a lot of proteins with all those ribosomes!

Well looky there, I think I see a smooth endoplasmic reticulum!

Berries = mitochondrias! M&M's = Lysosomes!

Sealing up the cell membrane! We put our cells in the fridge to set over lunch.

Holy disgusting!

After lunch it was time for dessert...

bag o' cells please!

Hey Mikey! They like it!

After our entire week of learning about animal cells the boys signed onto our inter-island science wiki and took part in an online discussion with their virtual classmates from the other island schools to discuss what they learned that week about animal cells!

Even though we do not have class every day with our friends on the other islands the fact that we know they are learning about the same topics and we can discuss subjects together really helps a lot!

Next week... plant cells!