Biology Assignment : The Inner Life of a Cell

Goal: Interpret the video, “The Inner Life of a Cell” to the point where a reasonable
understanding of structures and events shown is gained.

Introduction: Blood cells move within the bloodstream by various mechanisms. Red
blood cells (erythrocytes) are simply propelled by the force of the moving plasma fluid.
Many white blood cells (leukocytes), such as the one shown within this video, roll along
the inner wall (or endothelium) of the blood vessel by continuously linking and unlinking
protein extensions between the membrane of the cell and the membranes of the
endothelial cells. This results in a bit of a rolling motion along the inside wall of the
blood vessel. When a leukocyte comes to an area of the body where an infection or some
other damage has occurred, the leukocyte is able to chemically sense that area, come to a
stop and squeeze its way between endothelial cells to get to the damaged area.
This amazing video is the story of one such cell and some of the external and internal
events that occur which allow it to function in the way described above.

Do this in class:

Website 1: http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/

When this site comes up, hold down the command key (to left of space bar
and click on the button which says “Preview” Inner Life of a Cell” …… do not click on
the full version as this will take far too long to load.
Given our network speed, this video will take a little while to load….be
patient. When the video begins you will notice that there is a musical soundtrack that
accompanies the video, please turn this to a reasonably low level as everyone’s video will
be running at different places. This version of the video is only a little over 3 minutes in
length and I simply want you to watch it, enjoy it and marvel at it during this first
viewing. Even though the video is a digital creation, it was made using the expertise of
researchers at Harvard College and great care was taken to represent real events in what
is believed to be realistic views. Do not expect to understand much of what you are
looking at the first time through. Watch the video again if you wish, but do not close this
window after viewing as each time you close the window you will have to wait for the
reload when you access the site again.

Without closing the first window, pull down the ‘file’ menu and choose ‘new
window’ from the menu. This will open a new window on your chromebook and then
type in the following url:

Website 2: http://sparkleberrysprings.com/innerlifeofcell.html

This site shows you screenshots of the video and gives a possible explanation for
the events shown in each of the screenshots. Study these one by one and then go back
and watch the video as many times as necessary to learn to interpret the structures and
events being shown within the video.
Do this at home:
YouTube has several different versions of “The Inner Life of a Cell” video
which various individuals have posted. The advantage of these versions is that you can
view them full screen and you should not have to wait for them to load as you did in
class. There are two primary versions available on YouTube:

1) One version is the video that you viewed in class. All of these versions are about
3 minutes in length and all have a music background or silence……I have not
come across any that have voice over explanations. I suggest using the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyUtbn0O5Y

You may find another similar version by simply doing a search putting in the title
of the video……”The Inner Life of a Cell” if you wish. Remember all of these
versions are about 3 minutes in length.

2) Another version is longer in length (about 8 minutes) and has a ‘voice over’
which explains what you are looking at. The three minute version is contained
within this longer version. The advantage to the longer version is the explanation
that you get. I suggest using the following for this longer version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzcTgrxMzZk

Your assignment:

I will quiz you on the content of the shorter version of this video (the three
minute video). I will show the video and occasionally stop it to ask one or more
questions. I will keep the questions reasonably ‘basic’ as you are not expected to learn
every detail of the content of this video. The questions will focus more on the
organelles/structures that are common to all cells than the specific molecular names etc.
that are identified by the voice over. For example, I am much more likely to ask you to
identify a Golgi body, motor protein, microtubule or mitochondrion than the name of a
specific protein such as “P-selectin” or “G protein”. Use both the screen shot website and
the voice over version of the video to make sense of the shorter “musical” version. The
screen shot explanation and the voice over do not agree 100% on what is being viewed
….. I will accept either if there is a conflict between the two.

The quiz will be fair …… do not drive yourself nuts trying to learn every single
detail….just make pretty good sense of what you are seeing and you will do fine.