Cell Analogies

Grades 6-9, 90-120min

In the Cell Analogies project, students represent plant or animal cells by coming up with an overarching analogy that includes each cell component. They create a visual representation of their analogy on paper, in Google Slides or by coding it in Scratch, and then explain how each organelle fits in with their chosen analogy in a written justification.

Topics addressed

• Plant cells, animal cells and organelles
• Primary CT concept: abstraction. After spending some time learning about the nitty-gritty details of cells and organelles, this is a great opportunity for students to take a step back and think about the cell at a higher level, representing key concepts and functions with creative analogies.

Students will be able to

• Describe how each organelle functions and how it benefits the cell
• Create a visual representation their cell analogies in an artistic format

Materials

• Slides:
• Student handout:
• Craft materials, if you’d like students to have the option of creating a 3D model

Suggested lesson breakdown

This project is more of a practice/synthesis tool than a teaching tool, and therefore works best towards the end of the unit.

• 10min – introduce project, go over requirements and grading rubric
• 10-15min – students brainstorm their overarching analogy and how each organelle fits in
• 55-70min – students create their visual representations of their analogies
• 15-25min – students write their explanations of each component of their analogy

Next Generation science standards

• NGSS.MS-LS1-2
  Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways the parts of cells contribute to the function.

Common Core standards

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7
  Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).