« Implementation Discussion 1

Organelles in the typical cell  

A brief summary of Activity: Organelles in the typical cell.
Students have already made microscope slides of an Elodea plant and their own cheek cells, and analyzed what they could see under the microscope.
Students analyze images of cells from internet.
Students have studied the structure and function of cell organelles through text and www.virtualcell.com. They have viewed several videos: Inside the Cell, Life Inside the cell and others from Discovery Streaming and You Tube.
Students are then asked to use ImageJ to create their own stack of slides. Each slide would have an original drawing of an organelle. The organelles will be labeled with text of the same color as the drawn organelle. Some students put more than one organelle on a slide. Once the slides were made they created them to a stack for viewing by other students using an LCD projector. The function of each organelle could appear either on the slide in which the organelle was drawn or as a final slide.
The last section of the activity involved solving a problem within the cell. Students were to consider a cell with a small damage and a large damage. For example, they could have a section of the cell membrane, or mitochondria, or chloroplast or endoplasmic reticulum, or nuclear membrane with a small section damaged. They needed another organelle very badly "damaged". They needed to produce, either a series of slides to repair the small damage and use the lysosomes to digest the badly damaged organelle. Some students opted to make a power point. Either was Acceptable.
The activities went well, but it took longer than I anticipated. Students were engaged. Sharing the products often worked better when students gathered around a computer, rather than attaching each one to the LCD projector. That took longer. Students were engaged and indicated that they enjoyed this method of learning about organelles, rather than in a text or video.
If I do it again, I will allow more time, allow more than one organelle per slide and permit more flexibility for reporting out the answer to the problem. Depending on the level of the student, some were more comfortable with one slide and included text to solve the problem.

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That question about damage seemed too difficult for 7th grade when you first mentioned it. Now I think it is a really great question. The idea: A broken cell membrane,

so the ribosomes hold a message, they travel from the nucleus, through the ER, into the cytoplasm to the Golgi bodies

Ribosome Golgi bodies (1 copy each letter)
. mee me
. mbb mb
. raa ra
. nee ne

the message the golgi bodies receieve is: Membrane, meaning, send the lysosomes out to fix the hole in the cell membrane!

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The attached 3 files show three examples of student work.

Attachments:

Case of the Damaged Cell (PowerPoint 339kB Mar9 09)

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Student #2's powerpoint.

Attachments:

The Damaged Cell Surgery (PowerPoint 486kB Mar9 09)

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Student #3's Powerpoint.

Attachments:

Saving the Day for a Cell (PowerPoint 425kB Mar9 09)

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