Kōkiri Learn

Week 2 of 5

Reading cells: plant or animal, and what each part does

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Session 1 · VOICE: Observe

Plant cells, animal cells

  1. 15 minCompare slides or images: onion skin, a moss leaf (one cell thick, full of green chloroplasts) and prepared animal cells such as cheek or blood cells.
  2. 15 minSpot the differences: cell wall, chloroplasts, big vacuole. Sort ten mystery cell images into plant or animal and write the evidence for each choice.
  3. 15 minBuild a 'cell in a bag' model (see activities) and label each part with its job.
  4. 5 minQuick quiz in pairs: point at a part of your model, your partner names it and its job.

Session 2 · VOICE: Investigate

How big is a cell? Cells with special jobs

  1. 15 minMeasure the field of view on low power with a clear ruler. Count how many onion cells fit across it and calculate the length of one cell in millimetres and micrometres.
  2. 15 minSpecialised cells gallery: root hair, guard cells, nerve cell, muscle cell, red blood cell. For each, match the shape to the job.
  3. 15 minFrom cell to organism: cut-and-stick flow of cell, tissue, organ, system, organism using a leaf and a person as examples.
  4. 5 minRecord your results in your inquiry journal.

Getting started

Use the plant-or-animal checklist: wall? chloroplasts? big vacuole? Tick what you see before you decide.

Stretch

Compare the size of a bacterium, a red blood cell, an onion cell and a paramecium on one scale line. How many bacteria would fit across an onion cell?

Checkpoint

Each student can explain, using evidence from a cell, whether it came from a plant or an animal.

Activities for this week

Useful this week