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Not a jail cell . Ask students this question. What do they come up with?

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Engaging video on what stem cells really do. Video shows a live beating heart that was produced from stem cells

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SCIENTISTS GROW FULL-SIZED, BEATING HUMAN HEARTS FROM STEM CELLS

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Students often get confused on what a chloroplast is. Video explaining it will help students to learn more about it.

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Video explaining what stem cells are. Also includes how they are used for medical purposes

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What are stem cells? How can they be used for medical benefit?

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What are stem cells? - An short educational film by the Irish Stem Cell Foundation Stem cells are master cells of the body - want to learn more? Visit www.irishstemcellfoundation.org ISCF is an independent not-for-profit organisation whose primary objective is to educate about stem cells, their basic biology and the research and therapies using them.

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Will help students for their stem cell projects. Breaks down information into concise parts.

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Mini whiteboards are a fun way of getting students to draw or write down information

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Some students may not have baked a cake before. This explains how and also includes materials

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We love using NOEO, by Logos Press, for our science curriculum. This year we are working our way through the Biology 2 program. This curriculum lays out a weekly lesson plan for 4 days a week. I like to use the fifth day to add in fun projects related to our unit.

Recently we learned the parts of an animal cell. My goal was for the children to remember the main organelle names and their functions.

We read the pages in our science books and completed a coloring worksheet, but Hannah and Ben still had a hard time really memorizing the organelles.

I saw a few ideas floating around Pinterest about making a large-scale animal cell. Some people used play dough and some people used large styrofoam balls. I decided to make an animal cell cake. My kids seem to learn through their stomachs. Even if the lesson was a flop, at least there would be cake for dessert.

We baked two grain-free vanilla round cakes the night before we assembled our animal cell replica. Hannah is our resident baker. I gave her the recipe and she got to work. Baking is an excellent practical application for reading comprehension, measuring, and multiplying fractions.

I brought the kids to the grocery store and we wandered the candy aisle using our imagination while we tried to find candies that at least somewhat resembled the various organelles. I recommend buying the smallest size package of candy possible. My kids were very smooth, putting large packages of candy in the cart while exclaiming that these peanut butter cups were just like a nucleus. Before I knew it, we had almost $40 worth of candy. Candy that is still tempting me from the pantry. Learn from my mistake and buy the candies in single serving packages.

Once we had our cake and candy ready, it was time to assemble our animal cell.

Materials:

Note: You can use any candy you want to designate different organelles. These are just the candies that worked well for us.

Round cake, frosted with plain white icing

Yellow icing (cytoplasm)

Red Vines (cell wall)

Pull 'n' Peel Twizzlers, orange (golgi complex)

Pull 'n' Peel Twizzlers, red (endoplasmic reticula)

Peanut butter cup (nucleus)

Circle sprinkles (ribosome)

Sweet Tarts (lysosome)

Mike and Ike (mitochondrion)

Jelly beans (vacuoles)

Steps to create an animal cell cake:

1. First you will need to bake a round cake and frost it with plain white icing.

2. Next, spread a thin layer of yellow icing around the entire cake. This symbolizes the cytoplasm.

3. Now, wrap Red Vines around the perimeter of the cake. You may need to cut a Red Vine to fit smoothly. The Red Vine border represents the cell wall.

4. Next, place the peanut butter cup in the middle of the cell. The outer chocolate layer represents the nucleus and the creamy peanut butter center acts as the nucleolus.

5. Pull apart the Pull 'n' Peel Twizzlers to separate the orange and red vines. Tightly wind the orange pieces to create the Golgi complex. We nicknamed the golgi complex the 'Amazon Warehouse' as a way to remember that the golgi complex stores and distributes the substances made in the cell. Loosely wind the red vines to represent the endoplasmic reticulum. The endoplasmic reticulum is quite a mouthful for my third grader. We nicknamed the endoplasmic reticulum the 'highways' because it transports material around the cell.

6. Place a few circle sprinkles around the yellow frosting and along the endoplasmic reticulum. The sprinkles represent the ribosomes.

7. Next, place a few Sweet Tarts around the cake. The Sweet Tarts represent the lysosomes. We called the lysosomes the 'bodyguards' because they destroy invaders.

8. Add a few Mike and Ikes to represent the mitochondria.

9. Lastly, we added a couple of jelly beans to represent the vacuoles.

Once the animal cell cake was complete, I quizzed my kids on the various organelles. I named an organelle and gave them one M&M if they could correctly identify it and another if they could tell me the job. After a few rounds they both had the organelle structures and functions memorized. Candy is a powerful motivator.

Book resources

I highly recommend the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and Usborne Complete Book of the Microscope. These books came with our NOEO science curriculum and I am so happy they did. Both of these books show the animal cell organelles in beautiful illustrations. We referred to these books frequently while we were creating our animal cell cake.
Have you ever made an animal cell model? Tell me how in the comments!
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Organized Homeschooler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

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How to Make an Animal Cell Cake - The Organized Homeschooler

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We love using NOEO, by Logos Press, for our science curriculum. This year we are working our way through the Biology 2 program. This curriculum lays out a weekly lesson plan for 4 days a week. I like to use the fifth day to add in fun projects related to our unit.

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Making models helps students engage and teaches them valuable nature of science skills

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Gets students thinking about how a micrsocope works

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Powerpoint introducing lenses and the microscope. Visual aids will help students remember.

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Important for students to have labelled diagrams to refer to.

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This article got my thinking about 3D viewing of cells and how i could bring this into the classroom. The microscope is an overused way of getting students to view a cell in real life and i wanted to be able to give them a 3D model. This got me thinking about making a cake that modeled a cell which can be seen in the pictures i have attached. It would give students a 3D replication of a cell that they could create.

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Class Oak- Plant cell investigate LP.docx

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BC- Being Creative:
I think it is important for students to display their creative side in everything they do. It makes learning fun and allows students to be themselves. Creating an animal or plant cell cake will show their innovative skills on how they will display the various parts. etc. Also giving students to opportunity to create their own investigations on how to view cells under the microscope gives students a sense of independence and shows them that its okay to make mistakes as that is how we learn best.
WWO- Working with others:
Teamwork is a very important skill that I feel students must learn. They may already have these skills from playing on a team etc. I think giving students the opportunity to produce a project in a team is very important for their development and can benefit student learning. Students have the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another and make decisions together. It also gives them independence over their own work and gives them something to be proud of.
MI&T- Managing Information and Thinking:
It is important for students to take the initiative in their own learning and be responsible. Giving students the means to critically think for themselves is very important in science. It gives students the means to learn from their mistakes, if any. I can give students a list of various apparatus and get them to come up with their own investigation. I may even include materials unrelated but it will be up to them to realise this. This is a great way to get students thinking by allowing them to be in control.

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NOS 1- Students must be aware of the work of scientist associated with cells in order to understand how cells were discovered.

NOS 3- Students must be able to investigate how to obtain a cell and apply their learning and skills to achieve this.

NOS 5- Students must be able to examine their microscope technique and figure out ways to improve how they view a slide  of a cell.

NOS 6/7/8- Students must be able to produce a project on a topical scientific issue such as stem cells etc. They must be able to present their information to the class and include various ways the media manipulate information about their chosen topic.

NOS 9- Students must be able to investigate other scientists associated with cell research and  recognise the impact of their discoveries

BW 3- Students should be able to make the connection between cells and the development of organs in the body.
BW 7-Students should be able to pin point where in the cell respiration and photosynthesis take place.
BW 9- Students should be able to research into the ethical issues of stem cells and medical issues such as cancers and how cells become mutated