Name: Zaryahna Jackson Date: 9/21/23

Student Exploration: Cell Types

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.

Vocabulary:, bacteria, cell,, compound light microscope, eukaryote, multicellular, organelle,

prokaryote, protist,, unicellular

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. How do you know if something is alive? Describe some of the characteristics of living things.

You'll know when something is living because it could either be breathing or moving or
showing any other signs of life.

2. Humans, plants and mushrooms are all alive. What do these organisms have in common?

Cellular organization, the ability to reproduce, growth & development, energy use,
homeostasis, response to their environment, and the ability to adapt.

Gizmo Warm-up
In the Cell Types Gizmo, you will use a light microscope to compare and contrast
different samples. On the LANDSCAPE tab, click on the Elodea leaf. (Turn on Show all
samples if you can’t find it.) Switch to the MICROSCOPE tab to observe the sample as it
would appear under the microscope. By default, this microscope is using 40x
magnification.

1. Drag the Coarse focus slider until the sample is focused as well as possible. Then, improve the focus
with the Fine focus slider. What do you see?

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
2. Select the 400x magnification. If necessary, adjust the fine focus. Now, what do you see?

The individual chambers you see are cells, the smallest functional unit of an organism.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
 Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A: ● On the LANDSCAPE tab, click on the woman’s
Observing cells right arm to choose the Human skin sample.
● Select the MICROSCOPE tab.

Introduction: Complex organisms are made up of smaller units, called cells. Most cells are too small to be
seen by the naked eye. Microscopes are used to magnify small objects, so here you will use a compound
light microscope to observe the cells of different organisms.

Question: What are similarities and differences between cells from different organisms?

1. Match: Read about each microscope part. Match the description to the part on the diagram.

Stage: Platform where a slide is placed.

Eye piece: Lens at the top of the microscope that the user
A looks through. This lens most commonly magnifies a
sample by 10x.
C Coarse focus knob: Large knob that moves the stage up
and down to focus the sample.

D Fine focus knob: Small knob that moves the stage over a
short distance to refine the focus.

Objective lens: A second lens that further magnifies the

sample. Microscopes usually have several objective
E lenses with different magnifications. The total
magnification is the product of the eyepiece magnification
and the objective lens magnification.

F Slide: A rectangular piece of glass upon which a sample is

mounted for viewing under a microscope.

2. Manipulate: With 40x selected, use the Coarse and Fine focus sliders to focus on the sample. Then,
choose 400x and focus on the sample using the Fine focus slider.

A. Which focus knob is easier to use at 40x? 400x? I’d say 40x because you can see a
clear image and with 400x its blurry.

B. Turn on Show labels. What structures can you The epidermis, the dermis and
see in human skin cells? the subcutaneous layer.

C. Turn off Show labels and turn on Show scale bars. The scale bar has a width of 20
micrometers, or 20 μm. (There are 1,000 micrometers in a millimeter.) Using the scale bar,
about how wide is a human skin cell?

30 Micrometers
Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
3. Observe: An organelle is a cell structure that performs a specific function. Observe the samples below
under the highest magnification. Click the Show labels checkbox to label the organelles. List the
organelles and approximate size of the cells in each sample.

Sample Organelles Estimated size (μm)

Mouse skin
Melanosomes 20

Mitochondria
Fly muscle 20

Maple leaf
chloroplasts 20

Elodea
chloroplasts 20

Fungus
Mitochondria 20

What do all of these samples have in common?

They all have the same size estimate.

In eukaryotic cells, genetic material is contained inside a distinct, membrane-bound nucleus. Plant
and animal cells are classified as eukaryotes.

4. Observe: Click on the cow and observe E. coli under the highest magnification. Notice the microscope
magnification is larger for this organism, and notice the scale bar is smaller.

A. What is the approximate size of E. coli? 1.0-2.0 micrometers long

B. What organelles are present in E. coli? ribosomes, cell membranes, cell

walls, and outer membranes.

C. What organelle is missing from E. coli? nucleus

E. coli is an example of a bacteria. Bacteria are classified as prokaryotic cells because their DNA is
not contained in a membrane-bound nucleus.

5. Compare: Look at the Sand/silt sample under the microscope.

A. Turn on Show labels. Does sand/silt have No

any internal structures?

B. Do you think sand or silt is alive? Explain. No they're not living things they don't
grow

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:
Plants and ● On the LANDSCAPE tab, select the Microalgae
unicellular life sample.

Introduction: Most of the animals and plants we are familiar with are multicellular, they are made up of
many cells. However, many living things only consist of a single cell. These microscopic organisms are
unicellular.

Question: How are unicellular organisms similar to multicellular organisms?

400x. ✏️
1. Observe: Compare the microalgae, the Elodea leaf cells, the maple leaf cells, and the root hair cells at
Hand draw in the circles below or click on the circles and select EDIT to use the drawing tool.

Microalgae Elodea Maple leaf Root hair

A. What structures do all of these cells have in common?

They all have the same estimate.

B. What structures are missing from the root hair cells?

chloroplasts

C. What is the purpose of this structure, and why do you think it is missing from the root hair
cell?

To gather water and mineral nutrients from the soil.

Photosynthesis is the ability of some organisms to generate food from sunlight. Cells that
are not exposed to sunlight will not take part in photosynthesis.

D. How are the algae cells different from the other cells?

There is only a single nucleus, although some cells are multinucleate.

Microalgae are examples of unicellular organisms. Each cell is a single organism.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
2. Explore: Which other samples in the Gizmo do you think represent unicellular organisms?

Salmonella and protozoa like E. coli

3. Observe: Switch to the Protist sample. Protists are unicellular organisms common in ponds On the
MICROSCOPE tab, select the 100x radio button and focus the image.

A. Watch the motion of the protists at 100X and 400X. What structures allow each protist to
move?

Amoeba: pseudopods Euglena: flagellum Paramecium: Cilia

B. In the table below, draw the structures that allow the protists to move on their images on the left
and describe the structures in the spaces on the right:

Pseudopods are created by organisms pushing

Amoeba their cytoplasm in one direction creating a foot-like
protrusion.

The flagellum moves by a back and forth beating motion

Euglena in the water, allowing for the flagellate to propel the
organism through the water.

The cilia move in the opposite direction, backing

Paramecium the Paramecium up a bit, before continuing
forward

C. Which protist is photosynthetic? How do you know?

Euglenoids are unicellular eukaryotes with flexible bodies that belong to the
phylum Euglenophyta or Euglenozoa.

4. Compare: On the LANDSCAPE tab, click on the cow to switch to the E. coli sample. On the
MICROSCOPE tab, select 2500x, focus the image and turn on Show labels.

A. Find two structures that help E. coli move and describe them below:

Name: helical flagella Description: Helical flagella are rotated in clock-

wise or counterclockwise direction

Name: flagella Description: The cell's wall spin the flagella into
bundles that rotate
counter-clockwise

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
 B. Do protists (amoeba, Euglena, Paramecium) use similar structures to move? Explain.

Different protists dont have similar structures to move. Protists have different types of
appendages.

Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved