Membranes and Cell Structure

This page authored by Scott Cooper, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, with links to websites created by several authors.
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This material was originally developed through Merlot
as part of its collaboration with the SERC Pedagogic Service.

Initial Publication Date: August 28, 2009

Summary

In an introductory biology course, a lecture is often devoted to describing the functions of each organelle. While this information is important, it can be fairly dry and presented more as a laundry list. The purpose of this activity is to get students to engage the material out of class for a first exposure and identification of the components of a cell and membrane. Then the functions and more complex details can be expanded on in lecture.

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Learning Goals

To give students a first exposure to the functions of organelles and components of a membrane out of class so that they are familiar with the terms before lecture.

Context for Use

This is an out of class assignment designed to be used before lecture. It could also be used as a review or supplement after lecture.

Description and Teaching Materials

This is a simple one page assignment that can be given to students and collected, an online quiz developed for assessment, or just as a review. There are links to several online tutorials in which students can find answers to these questions.
Student Handout for Membranes and Cell Structure (Microsoft Word 184kB Jun26 09)

Membranes and cell structure quiz (Microsoft Word 38kB Aug28 09)

Teaching Notes and Tips

This is an out of class assignment designed to be used before lecture. It could also be used as a review or supplement after lecture. We developed an online quiz that students took after completing the assignment to test whether or not they had gone through the tutorial and were familiar with the material before lecture.

Assessment

The assignment could be collected and graded or you could develop a quiz to test the students on their understanding of the material.

References and Resources

All links are also on the attached file.