Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(Independent Project)
Introduction
What do you have in common with a tree, monkey, whale, bacteria, and fungi? The
answer is that you and these organisms are all living things and are all made of cells.
A cell is the most basic unit of life. Our bodies are made up of billions of cells: blood cells,
brain cells, skin cells, and many, many more. When you look at your skin, you are not able
to see each individual cell because they are very small in size. In fact, 1 square centimeter
of your skin contains about 100,000 cells!
Although cells are very tiny and hard to see with the naked eye, they are actually very
complex. Each individual cell is a "city" of life made up of complex organelles or cell
organs. Each of these organelles within the cell has a unique and special job that makes
all life possible.
Your Task
Your task is to create a travel brochure that describes the functions of each organelle
within a cell.
Imagine the cell being similar to a small city, an amusement park, a shopping mall, or a
tourist attraction such as a museum, or sports stadium. Using your creativity and your
knowledge about cell organelles, you will produce a travel brochure to attract visitors to
your "city" or chosen destination.
This brochure will not only attract visitors, but it will also serve as an analogy for each of
the cell organelles' functions. Your brochure should use words and pictures that describe
the place and motivate tourists to travel there.
The Steps
1. Gather organelle information!
o Use your notes.
3. Choose a location!
o Decide the location or attraction that your brochure will describe.
o Examples include a city, amusement park, restaurant, tourist attractions, museum, sports arena, shopping mall,
factory, or wherever your creativity takes you.
Analogy Example:
If I were describing a cell to be like a castle, I would describe the gate around the castle as a double layered wall with
guards that patrol and control who comes in and out. (This would be an analogy for the cell membrane, you cannot use
this analogy).
o These pictures should reflect what the actual organelles look like or what their function is in the cell.
8. The front cover of your brochure must include the name of your attraction, the type of
cell you are using, and a picture.
9. Your proper heading (name, subject, date, period, and grade) must be on your
brochure.
10. You must define all definitions and analogies in your own word (do not plagiarize.)
Cell Tutorial
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/tutorials/pev/pag
e3.html This site has some cool images and description
of organelles.
Ask a Biologist
http://askabiologist.asu.edu/research/buildingblocks/cell
parts.html
More descriptions of cell structure and function. This site has good graphics.
3) What were some interesting things you learned about the 8 organelles you described this project? Explain.
4) How do you feel you did on your cell travel brochure? If you could do it over again, would you change anything?
Explain.
5) Did you find this web quest to be easy or difficult to use? Explain.
7) If you were to grade yourself on your cell travel brochure, what would that be? Explain why.
Congratulations! With the successful completion of your travel brochure, you should now have a better idea on the
structure of a cell and the functions of its organelles. It will be important for you to refer back to your brochure and your
understanding of the cell structure and function as we study single celled organisms like bacteria, learn about cell division
through the process of mitosis, and study the structure of DNA and the importance of cells in our study of genetics. This
knowledge will also be important as we continue to learn about the characteristics and diversity of all living things.