Comparing Plant cells and Animal cells Lab Report
Introduction- Mateo Pelaez
All living things are made up of tiny little units called cells. A cell is a basic unit of all forms of life, but it is also the smallest living thing in the world. Cells consist of an outside boundary called the cell membrane. Inside the cell there is a structure that consists of material which is called the cytoplasm. My question is what are the similarities and differences between a plant cell and an animal cell? I used the microscope to examine the differences between a plant cell and an animal cell. I hypothesised that a plant cell has a cell wall, cytoplasm and a nucleus. The difference between both of these cells is that an animal cell has a cell membrane and a plant cell has a cell wall. In order to test the hypothesis, I examined through the microscope the differences between an plant cell and an animal cell.
Materials-
- Glass cover slide
- Glass slide
- Iodine
- Microscope
- Onion
- Elodea
- Potato
- Cheek
- Tooth pick
- Dropper
Section IV-
Plant cells-
Elodea
400x 100x
Elodea description: In the elodea cell I observed the Cell wall, cytoplasm and the nucleus. I also saw that the plant cell was mainly green. And the shape of the plant cell was rectangular.
Onion cell-
400x 100x
Onion cell description:The color of the cell was basically white.The outside boundary of the cell was a cell wall. I also saw cytoplasm and the nucleus. inside the cell.
Animal cells:
Cheek cell-
400x 100x
Cheek cell description: Under high power the cell looked like it had a nucleus, cytoplasm and a cell membrane. The color of the cheek was yellowish mixed with a type of brownish color.
Frog Blood Cell-
400x 100x
Blood cell description: The blood cells had cytoplasm,cell membrane, and a nucleus. The color of the frog blood cell was a reddish pinkish color. The frog blood cell was shaped like an animal cell that had a cell membrane. In the blood cell I was also able to see how the cytoplasm was alive clearly inside the frog blood cell.
Conclusion-
My hypothesis was what are the similarities and differences between a plant cell and an animal cell. What I learned from my experience of looking into the microscope is that the structure of a plant cell is quite similar and different from the structure of a animal cell structure. Animal cells have a flexible structure called the cell membrane. Plant cells have a outside boundary that maintains the plant from falling or breaking, which is called the cell wall. Plant cells have chloroplasts which captures the energy from sunlight and converts it into chemical energy. Chlorophyll is the structure that gives a greenish color to a plant. When I saw the inside of the plant cell I saw that there were chloroplasts inside the cell. Chloroplasts are organelles that capture the energy in a process called photosynthesis. The purpose of the lab is to determine how to compare plant cells and animal cells and their similarities and differences. What I thought that was really difficult was finding the cheek cell. It was hard for me to find it because I wasn't using the microscope correctly. Later I tried again to focus on the cheek cell and I got a perfect view of the cell. We can get to know more about the cell and how to determine the difference between the both different types of structures.
Methods-
Cheek slide
● take a toothpick and rub it on inside of cheek
● rub off cheek cells onto Iodine and the slide
● observe the cheek cell under 100x and 400x
● cell had cytoplasm,nucleus and a cell membrane under 400x
Blood cell
● had its cover slide/ glass slide
● examined the blood cell with 400x and 100x
● cell had a cytoplasm,cell membrane and a nucleus hard to see
Onion cell
● cut onion into thinnest piece you can
● put a drop of Iodine onto glass slide
● place cover slide over glass slide
● start observing 400x and 100x
● cell had cell wall,cytoplasm and a nucleus
Elodea cell
● Grab a piece of elodea cell from the tank
● put elodea cell onto glass slides/cover slides
● start observing elodea cell 400x and 100x
● Cell had a nucleus,cell wall and cytoplasm