CELLS
Grade 7
Life Science
Rinda Van Zuilen
Table of Contents
Standards
Rationale
Concept Map
Lesson Plans
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Ordering and Planning Dates
Reflections on Schedule of Lessons
Special Student Considerations
Assessment
Potential Safety Concerns
Lab Rules
Classroom Management
Teaching Resources
Self-Evaluation
Standards Covered in this Unit
National Standards
- Structure and Function in Living Systems
- All organisms are composed of cells--the fundamental unit of life. Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including humans, are multicellular.
- Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life. They grow and divide, thereby producing more cells. This requires that they take in nutrients, which they use to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs.
State Standards
- The student will understand that all organisms are composed of cells that carry on the many functions needed to sustain life.
Unifying Science Concepts
- Systems, Order, and Organization
- Evidence, Models, and Explanation
- Form and Function
Rationale
This unit covers these national and state standards. This unit would be the lead into genetics and evolution. This would be because the students would need to understand that cells contain genetic information. They would also need to understand the process of cell division as a part of genetics and evolution prior to these units.
Concept Map
Day One
Objectives:
Students will be able to label the parts of a microscope.
Students will be able to use and carry a microscope properly.
Students will be able to create a wet mounted slide.
Key Concepts:
Microscope parts and usage
Wet mounting
Materials:
Microscope
Microscope worksheet
Slides
Slip Covers
Specimen – thread fibers
Lesson Activity
Microscope worksheet
Have an overhead of the same worksheet and fill in the worksheet with them. Explain what each part of the microscope is and what it does. Explain the steps to using a microscope properly and how to carry the microscopes safely.
Time: 20 minutes
Wet Mounting
Demonstrate to the students how to create a wet mount. Explain why you wet mount slides. Then have the students try it using just water, then wet mount the thread fibers. Allow the students to look at the water under the microscope so that they can identify what a water bubble looks like. Then have them look at the thread fibers under different magnifications.
http://www.greatscopes.com/act005.htm
Time: 30 minutes
Reading Assignments:
None
Homework Assignments:
None
Teaching Strategies:
Lecture, Demonstration, Hands-on practice (laboratory)
Day Two
Objectives:
Students will be able to explain the concept that larger objects are composed of smaller units, like cells.
Students will be able to demonstrate how to carry a microscope.
Students will be able to label the parts of a microscope.
Key Concepts:
Larger objects are composed of smaller units.
Microscope usage
Materials:
Picture of a brick house from a distance
Picture of a brick house close enough to see windows and the door
Picture of a brick house from four feet away
Picture of an onion or a real onion
Picture of an onion cut in half or a real onion
Picture of the magnified cells of an onion
Lesson Activity:
KWL worksheet
Students will write down what they know about cells, what they want to know about cells, and at the end of the unit they will write down what they have learned about cells. Then discuss with the class the things that they know and want to know.
Time: 15 minutes
Picture Activity
Begin by having the students look at a picture of a brick house from a distance, ask students to explain what they see and discuss how you can tell the shape of the house. Then show a closed picture of the house, ask what is different from the previous picture and discuss how you can notice more detail: walls, windows, doors, stairs, and chimney. Then show the pictures of the bricks and explain how each brick forms part of the structure of the building. Next ask if this can be related to plants and animals then explain how animals and plants also have an overall structure as well as different parts. Then show an onion in the same manner as the house. Explain how the bricks that make up the house are like how plants and animals have cells, that are too small to see with the naked eye but are visible under a microscope.
Time: 30 minutes
Microscope Review
Look at the worksheet on microscope parts, how to use and how to carry. Have students recall wet mounting.
Time: 5 minutes
Reading Assignments:
Chapter 1 Section 1 pages 16 -22 in Science Explorer: Cells and Heredity (2000).
Homework Assignments:
None
Teaching Strategies:
Diagnostic Assessment, Inquiry, Discussion, Review
Day Three
Objectives:
Students will be able to explain the history of cells.
Students will be able to explain the cell theory.
Key Concepts:
History of science
Cell theory
Materials:
Microscope, cork
Lesson Activity:
Lab – Have the students look at cork under the microscopes and have the lab partners do a Think, Pair, Share about what they’ve seen. Then lead a class discussion about what we’ve just observed.
Time: 10 minutes
Lecture – explaining how Robert Hooke discovered the cell. Why he named it the way he did. Talk about the development of the microscope and how we are now able to see things we’ve never seen before.
Time: 15 minutes
Use: http://www.cellsalive.com/ to show students the types of things that we can see using microscopes.
Time: 5 minutes
Show: The Magic of Cells Video.
Time: 20 minutes
Reading Assignments:
None
Homework Assignments:
None
Teaching Strategies:
Laboratory, Think-Pair-Share, Inquiry, Lecture, Video
Day Four
Objectives:
Students will be able to explain the similarities and differences between bacteria, plant, and animal cells.
Students will be able to identify differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
Students will be able to determine if bacteria, plant, and animal cells are prokaryotic or eukaryotic.
Key Concepts:
Plant cell
Animal cell
Bacteria cell
Eukaryotic vs. prokaryotic cells
Materials:
Microscope
Bacteria slides
Plant cell slides
Animal cell slides
Lesson Activity:
Lab on bacteria, plant and animal cells
Time: 30 minutes
Collaboration of students’ similarities and differences they found as a class.
Time: 8 minutes
Lecture on prokaryotes vs. eukaryotes based on similarities and differences that they found. Some concepts to mention:
Prokaryotes don’t have definite structures.
Eukaryotes have definite structures.
Time: 10 minutes
Mention that for the rest of the unit we will be concentrating on eukaryotes, plants and animals, and their similarities and differences based on their structures.
Time: 2 minutes
Reading Assignments:
None
Homework Assignments:
None
Teaching Strategies:
Laboratory, Lecture, Class Discussion, Grouping: lab/table partners
Bacteria, Plant, and Animal Lab
Part I.
Materials:
Microscope
Prepared slides of bacteria cells
Prepared slides of plant cells
Prepared slides of animal cells
Procedure:
In pairs obtain 1 of each of the 3 specimens.
View them under the microscope under low and high power.
Draw each of them under the power where there is most detail.
Make a detailed drawing of each and label which power was used.
Part II.
Label the drawings as prokaryotic and eukaryotic.
Day Five
Objectives:
Students will be able to identify and explain function of the parts of the cell.
Key Concepts:
Cell organelles
Materials:
Textbook
Lesson Activity:
Introduction:
- Overview of yesterday’s activities and how we looked at similarities and differences of bacteria, plant, and animal cells
- We noticed that within the eukaryotic cells there were various structures and these structures are called organelles.
- In the jigsaw activity you will learn what these organelles are, where they are located in the cell, if they are located in only plant or animal cells and their function.
Time: 10 minutes
Jigsaw Activity:
- Students will be separated into groups of 5.
- Each person will then move to another group and become an expert on 2-3 organelles of the cell.
- Students will then gather into groups and begin sharing the information they became an expert on.
Time: 40 minutes
Reading Assignment:
Pages 23-31 to obtain information
Homework Assignment:
Tell students about CELLO project and give them a list of items that will be needed next week.
Teaching Strategies:
Jigsaw, Review
Jigsaw Activity
Expert Group #1
Cell Membrane
Cell Wall
Expert Group #2
Vacuole
Cytoplasm
Lysosome
Expert Group #3
Endoplasmic Reticulum
Ribosomes
Expert Group #4
Nucleus
Nucleolus
Chromatin
Expert Group #5
Mitochondria
Golgi Bodies
Chloroplast
Day Six
Objectives:
Students will be able to identify and explain function of the parts of the cell.
Key Concepts:
Cell organelles
Materials:
Textbook
Lesson Activity:
Continue the jigsaw activity until experts have shared their information.
Time: 25 minutes
Summarize the findings of the expert groups and make sure that everyone has accurate and correct information regarding each of the organelles by discussing with the class what they were told by their experts.
Time: 20 minutes
Explain the Analogy assignment and give an example.
How a cell is related to a school:
Nucleus=office, related by directing activities
Cell Membrane=walls, related by forming barrier
Lysosomes=janitors, related by cleaning
Vacuoles=storage rooms, related by storage
Etc.
Time: 5 minutes
Reading Assignments:
None
Homework Assignments:
Analogy Assignment
Reminder about the items that are needed in the CELLO project
Teaching Strategies:
Jigsaw, Class Discussion, Review
Cell Analogy Assignment
Directions:
Compare the cell and its organelles to something you are familiar with.
Possible themes: city, school, computer, human body, etc.
Requirements:
1. Make a picture/drawing/image of the theme you are using. Label the parts.
2. Make a picture/drawing/image of the type of cell you are comparing your theme to (plant or animal).
3. Organelles must be included, labeled and described.
- Relate the role of the organelle to your theme object.
- Explain its function.
4. Include these organelles (choosing only the ones that relate to your type of cell (plant or animal)
- Cell Wall
- Cell Membrane
- Vacuole
- Cytoplasm
- Lysosome
- Endoplasmic Reticulum
- Ribosomes
- Nucleus
- Nucleolus
- Mitochondria
- Chloroplast
- Golgi Bodies
Day Seven
Objectives:
Students will be able to draw and label the parts of plant cells and animal cells.
Students will be able to create their own wet mounted slides.
Key Concepts:
Plant cells vs Animal Cells
Materials:
Microscope slides and cover slips, Elodea, onion, toothpicks, iodine, methylene blue, medicine droppers.
Lesson Activity:
Discuss some of the interesting and well-done analogy assignments to give more examples to the students.
Time: 5 minutes
Introduction to Plant and Animal Lab
Overview of the information that they gathered about organelles of cell and their functions.
Time: 5 minutes
Plant and Animal Lab
Introduction on how they are going to look at real plant and animal cells, draw them, and label the parts.
Cheek Cells:
Procedure:
1. Before you begin, make sure your slide and coverslips are clean. You don’t want lint or fingerprints on your slide. If the slide is dirty, rinse it off and dry it well with a paper towel.
2. Put a drop of methylene blue on a clean slide. Caution: Methylene blue will stain clothes and skin.
3. Gently scrape the inside of your cheek with the flat side of a toothpick. Scrape lightly.
4. Stir the end of the toothpick into the stain and throw the toothpick away.
5. Place the coverslip at a 45-degree angle on the edge of the water/saliva mix. Allow the liquid to spread down the edge of the coverslip. Once it has spread, carefully lower the coverslip over the liquid.
—If you have a lot of air bubbles regardless of size, rinse of your slide and start over. It’s important that you make a good slide.
6. Use the SCANNING objective to focus. You probably will not see the cells at this power but you can eliminate blurriness by focusing now.
7. Switch to low power. Cells should be visible, but they will be small and look like irregular shaped objects.
8. Once you think you have located a cell, switch to high power and refocus.
9. Draw what you see and label the parts.
Elodea:
Procedure:
1. Before you begin, make sure your slide and cover slips are clean. You don’t want lint or fingerprints on your slide. If the slide is dirty, rinse it off and dry it well with a paper towel.
2. Place a drop of water in the center of a clean glass slide.
3. Remove a leaf from the Elodea plant and place it on the drop of water on the slide. Make sure the leaf is flat.
4. Carefully place a cover slip over the drop of water and Elodea leaf.
5. Place the slide on the stage of the microscope with the leaf directly over the opening in the stage.
6. Using the SCANNING objective, locate the leaf under the microscope.
7. Switch to the low power. Adjust until the leaf is in focus.
8. Once you have located a cell, switch to high power.
9. Draw what you see and label the parts.
Onion:
Procedure:
1. Peel a translucent piece of tissue from theonion. The smaller the piece the better. (Translucent means that you can see light through the specimen, but it is not transparent.)
2. Place the piece of onion on a glass slide and add a drop or two of the iodine solution.
3. Cover the slide with a cover slip using the same technique that you used for your cheek cells.
4. Observe the onion cell under both low and high power.
5. Draw what you see and label the parts.
Time: 40 minutes
Reading Assignment:
None
Homework Assignment:
Bring the items needed for the CELLO project.
Create a table comparing the parts of plant and animal cells
Teaching Strategies:
Laboratory
Using your drawings from the lab. Create a table comparing Plant Cells and Animal Cells.
PLANT CELLS ANIMAL CELLS
Day Eight
Objectives:
Students will be able to describe the cell as a 3D object rather than the 2D object they are accustomed to observing.
Students will be able to describe the appearance and location within the cell of the various cell organelles.