Middle School Life Science

Cells and What They Do

One algal cell is a whole living thing doing every job at once.

A plant cell in a textbook diagram sits still. An algal cell under a classroom microscope is a complete organism, taking in light, making food and dividing, so students see the parts of a cell at work rather than labelled.

Buy the Algae Beads kit Back to Middle School

MS-LS1-2 NGSS, grades 6 to 8

8.13.A Texas, grade 8

SC.6.L.14.4 Florida, grade 6

How the lab meets it

What students do that satisfies the standard

Grades 6-8

NGSS MS-LS1-2

Standard: Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.\nWhat the kit does: Students look at living algae and connect the green chloroplast to the job of making food, then connect that job to the whole cell growing and dividing.

Grade 8

Texas 8.13.A

Standard: Identify the function of the cell membrane, cell wall, nucleus, ribosomes, cytoplasm, mitochondria, chloroplasts, and vacuoles in plant or animal cells.\nWhat the kit does: Students see chloroplasts inside living algal cells and tie them to making food, then name the jobs the other parts must be doing for the cell to grow and divide. Honest fit: partial. The chloroplast is the part students can actually see working. The rest of the list is learned from the diagram, not the microscope.

Grade 6

Florida SC.6.L.14.4

Standard: Compare and contrast the structure and function of major organelles of plant and animal cells, including cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm, chloroplasts, mitochondria, and vacuoles.\nWhat the kit does: Algal cells give students a living plant-like cell to look at, with chloroplasts and a cell wall they can point to. Honest fit: partial. The kit covers the plant side. The animal cell half of the comparison needs a slide or diagram from the teacher.

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