The Edible Cell

Clay's science course this year is Apologia Human Anatomy and Physiology. He will be completing the first lesson tomorrow, which has covered the history of the study of anatomy and a simple study of the human cell. I am really enjoying this science book. The conversational tone of the text makes difficult science concepts easy to understand.

Today all of the children made an edible cell!

I mixed up yellow jello with added gelatin this morning, and allowed it to jell in bowls for several hours. After lunch while the children were playing outside, I set up the lab.

Each yellow blob on the paper plate is a cell, made of jello. The various candies served as the different parts of the cell. Yum!

A close up of the supplies

the cytoplasm!

This is Clay's drawing of a cell. He worked on this for a few days while I read to him about each part of the cell. The notebook is sold by Apologia too, and it goes along with the textbook.

I asked Clay to explain each part of the cell--its name and its function. Then I told the children which candy to use to represent the cell part, and they inserted it into the cell. They had to use a knife to cut a slit or hole in the jello. If they just poked the candy in the jello, it would pop right out! Adding the cell parts caused a little bit of frustration to some of the children!

This is Clay adding mitochondria to his cell.

Olivia adding mitochondria to hers

Julie and Sam made one cell together. She is adding the centriole.

Sam mostly ate cell parts.

Leah working hard on her cell. She is inserting the endoplasmic reticulum.

Sam and Julie, almost done!

Clay's finished cell!

Serious scientists!

After completing the cells, Leah, Sam, and Clay proceeded to eat their cells! Yuk! They all enjoyed the leftover cell parts (candy).

To wrap up this two week science lesson, tomorrow Clay will review all that he has learned by making a mini-book on the parts of the cell, completing a vocabulary crossword puzzle, and finishing up narrating the various chapter parts in his lapbook. All of this wrap-up will probably take two days. Then we can begin lesson 2 on Monday.

I really like this science course.