Danny Lynch

Mrs. Murray
1/11/16
Honors Biology

Good morning class, Mrs. Murray said, today we are going to be exploring what a cell
looks like from inside. Everyone around me started to gain a lot of interest for what we were
about to do. Then Steve asked, Mrs. Murray, does this mean that we are going to look at cells
through microscopes? She replied, No Steve. We are going to go inside a cell and see what it
looks like. Now everyone was very excited for what was about to take place in our class.
Mrs. Murray told us to come and stand underneath this little shower-like spout, and we
were shrunk down to the size of cells. She had already gotten an area ready with animal cells
inside so we can look inside them. We are going to be looking at thirteen organelles from inside
the cell, and each of these organelles does something different, Mrs. Murray explained, I will
teach all of you about each of them as we encounter them inside of the cell. Then Jack asked,
Mrs. Murray, how will we travel inside of the cell? She replied, We will be taking a ride on
our Magic School Bus! This bus was very small compared to our actual size, but since we were
all shrunk down, it seemed just right. All aboard! Mrs. Murray exclaimed, and we all climbed
onto the bus.
As we arrived near the cell, Mrs. Murray said, Okay class, who can guess what the
outside of this cell is? Every cell has one of these. There was some murmuring, and Chris called
out, That is the cell membrane! Mrs. Murray called out, Great job Chris! and then said, Can
anyone tell me what its function is? I replied, The function of the cell membrane is to regulate
what goes in and comes out of the cell. It also acts as a boundary between the parts inside of the

cell, and the outside of the cell. She replied, Very good Danny, next on the list is the
cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is a jellylike material. This organelle consists of everything inside the
cell except the cell membrane.
Our class drove a little further into the cell. Then we all saw this large sphere in front of
us. Mrs. Murray, Brooke asked, what is that? She answered, That is the nucleus. There are a
few parts inside the nucleus that I would like to talk about briefly. First, does anyone know what
the nucleus does? Steve blurted out, The nucleus contains most of the genes that control the
eukaryotic cell. It contains the DNA and acts as the control center for the entire cell. Mrs.
Murray responded, Correct Steve, and does anyone know what other organelle is contained
within the nucleus? Nobody knew the answer so she continued saying, The nucleolus is inside
the nucleus. It makes all the components of the ribosomes. It looks like a smaller sphere inside of
the nucleus. Can anyone tell me what surrounds the nucleus and nucleolus? Again she had to
answer her own question, The part of the cell that surrounds the nucleus and the nucleolus is
called the nuclear envelope! This looks like a double membrane between the nucleus and the
cytoplasm, and it functions as a boundary between the two.
As we drove out of the nucleus, our bus almost ran into another organelle. Mrs. Murray
exclaimed, Well class, can you see these flattened tubes over there? That is the smooth
endoplasmic reticulum. It has the job of synthesizing lipids and steroids, metabolizing
carbohydrates, and detoxifying drugs and poisons. It does not have ribosomes attached like the
next organelle we are about to see. Then Joe Alampi asked, Mrs. Murray, is the next organelle
the rough endoplasmic reticulum? Her answer was, Yes Joe, it is. Do you know what it looks
like, or what its function is? He replied, The rough endoplasmic reticulum is similar to the
image of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, but it has ribosomes attached to it. The function of

this organelle is to create proteins that will be attached to vesicles that transfer them out of the
cell. She confirmed, Very good Joe, that answer is correct! Then Seth asked, What is a
vesicle? Mrs. Murray said, You are about to find out.
We drove our bus to an organelle inside the cytoplasm that looked like it could carry
ribosomes. Mrs. Murray said, Seth, this is a vesicle. They look like spherical packages. Its
function is to carry ribosomes to the Golgi apparatus, and then, once through the Golgi
apparatus, its job is to take the finished product out of the cell to where it needs to go. We then
continued to drive through the cytosol and arrived at a new organelle. Mrs. Murray, what is
that? Justin questioned. Justin that is the Golgi apparatus. It looks like multiple stretched out
peanuts. At the front there is a vesicle that will carry the ribosome through the organelle. Also,
there is a vesicle at the end of the Golgi apparatus that will take the modified ribosome where it
needs to go. The function of this organelle is to modify ribosomes, and transport them where
they are needed outside the cell, Mrs. Murray answered. As our class continued on our journey
through the cell, we arrived at an organelle that looked like a cashew. Ryan asked, Why does
that organelle look like a cashew? The response came after a short laugh, This is a
mitochondria. Its job is to provide energy for the cell. It does look like a cashew, Mrs. Murray
explained.

As our class continued through the cell, we observed two organelles that happened to be
near each other. Drew asked, Mrs. Murray, are those little dots ribosomes? And arent they
supposed to be attached to the rough endoplasmic reticulum? She replied, Yes Drew, they are
ribosomes, and yes some are attached to the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Some ribosomes are
free. They float in the cytoplasm and make protein for inside the cell. We turned our focus onto

the other organelle. Mrs. Murray said, Class, this is a vacuole. The animal cell has multiple
vacuoles that are spread out inside the cell. Its job is to store things that are not needed
immediately. You can tell it is a vacuole because it is a small spherical storage space. It fills with
fluid and unwanted waste. She continued our tour of the cell. We came close to another
organelle that looked like a button. She said, Okay everyone, this is called a lysosome. It is a
membrane bound sac. It looks like a button to me. The purpose of this organelle is to digest food
and other non-needed items. It has digestive enzymes to help this process.
On our way out of the cell, we stopped in the middle of the cytoplasm not close to any
organelle. Mrs. Murray asked the class, Does anyone have any questions? Everyone looked
around for a brief moment, and then Andrew spoke out, Mrs. Murray, what is the part of the cell
that looks like a bunch of lines crossing each other? She replied, Andrew that is the
cytoskeleton. It looks like a bunch of tic-tac-toe boards combined. The function of this organelle
is to give the cell its structure and support. If there are no more questions, we will continue out of
the cell and back to normal size. Our class drove out of the cell, and we were enlarged back to
our normal size. Everyone enjoyed the journey and learned a lot about the cell.