Transcript The Plant Cell - Eastern STANYS

The Plant Cell
Take a trip through the cell
As part of an assignment in my
science class I was asked to learn
more about the plant cell. I wasn’t
sure how to do that. Suddenly I
remembered the movie ”Honey, I
Shrunk the Kids!” and how the
characters were so tiny that they
could look at microscopic things. I
wondered what I would see if I was
tiny enough to take a trip through a
plant cell. I would have to become
smaller than the cell itself, so tiny
that more than 100 of me would fit
on the head of a pin.
So I pretended to take the trip as a
microscopic being.
Smaller than this!
Smaller than the
period at the end
of this sentence.
Cell wall
My first stop was the cell wall. Plant cells have a boxy shape, and the cell wall is
rigid and protects the cell. I entered the cell wall by getting a ride on a carbon
dioxide compound that was on its way into the cell.
O
C O
Inside
of cell
• My first obstacle was the
cell membrane. I couldn’t
get into the cell, because I
didn’t have the right
password. I decided to
sneak around one of the
large proteins which were
used as an entrance into
the cell. I listened to the
different materials getting in
and out and finally heard
the code word. I used it to
go through the cell
membrane and I entered
the cell. I learned that the
cell membrane is semipermeable, which means it
selects what can go in or
Outside of
leave the cell.
cell
• The first thing I encountered on my way into the
plant cell was this gel-like material called cytoplasm.
It supports the cell, and all organelles are suspended
in it. It has little tunnels, so that material can get
from one organelle to another.
• In the center of the cytoplasm I saw this
huge circular structure. I decided to check
it out. As I got closer I saw that it gave
directions to all the other organelles in the
cell.
The nucleus told me to go to the vacuole to get food and water. It told
me to take the ER to get there. I wondered what the ER is.
• Attached to the nucleus is this huge maze-like thing called the
endoplasmic reticulum. OHHH, I see…. the ER!! It transports
materials from the nucleus to the rest of the cell. There are also
ribosomes on the ER. They are responsible for protein
production, which helps the cell to be healthy. I followed the
channels and wondered where it will take me next. I hope I’ll
find the vacuole soon, because the nucleus has given me an
order. I sat down on the ER and
whooooosh………………………….off I go!
• I got off at the next stop. It was
easy to find the vacuole, since it
was a huge sac-like structure. It
took up most of the cell and was
filled with food, made by the plant
following photosynthesis, and
water, which had been delivered to
the cell from the roots of the plant.
The vacuole stores all of the food
and water until it is needed by the
organelles. I asked the vacuole to
give me some food and water. It
told me that the nucleus had just
changed the order. I needed to
bring the food to the mitochondria,
because the cell was running a
little low on energy. I asked for
directions, and the vacuole told me
to look for kidney- shaped
organelles, with lots of folded
membranes on the inside of them.
Hmmm, do you see where
I have to go? Where are
the mitochondria?
C6H12O6 (glucose)+ O2 = Energy + H20 + CO2
I found them! The mitochondria are indeed kidney-shaped
organelles and they can be recognized by their many folded
membranes inside of them. Mitochondria have the ability to take the
food and oxygen the plant produces, and they convert that into
energy. The cell uses the energy to do its daily jobs, or stores it for
further use. I passed the food to the mitochondria and they
immediately went to work, converting it into energy.
•
•
•
My next stop on the trip was near
the chloroplasts. They were green
organelles. The chlorophyll in them
made them green. I saw sunlight
being absorbed by the
chloroplasts. I wondered what they
were doing with the sunlight and I
decided to check it out.
I found out that the sunlight is used
to break apart the water and
carbon dioxide and recombines it
into glucose, which is food for the
plant. Oxygen is a byproduct of
photosynthesis and is given off by
the plant back to the environment.
It looked like a factory there,
everything was working like an
assembly line.
H20 + CO2 + chlorophyll + sunlight = C6H12O6 (glucose)+ O2
• The last place I decided to visit are the Golgi Bodies, or
also called the Golgi complex. This is like a package
factory. It takes all of the products made in the cell and
packages them, before sending them off. I decided that I
was ready to leave, so I allowed the Golgi Bodies to
wrap me up. Nicely wrapped and cozy I traveled through
the proteins in the cell membrane, and continued out of
the cell.
• Wow, what a trip. I learned so much on
my trip through the cell. I know that
most of the organelles are colorless,
but I imagined them in color so that it
helped me to know what they look like.
I also learned that the cell is a busy
place to be, and it is constantly
producing food and energy to help it
function. I also learned that cells are
tiny!!! It takes millions of cells to make
one leaf, and millions more to make a
whole plant. What did you learn from
my story?
I also learned that animal cells are similar to plant cells,
with similar organelles, but they come in many different
shapes and sizes. They don’t have cell walls, nor
chloroplasts.
So basically animal cells are more flexible, and definitely
not green!!