Name: ____________________ Date: ___________ Period: ________
How Plant and Animal Cells Differ
I’m an animal cell
with centrioles.
I don’t have a cell
wall, chloroplasts
or large vacuole
I’m a little
plant cell
with a large
vacuole, cell
wall and
chloroplasts
Background
What do plant cells have, that animals cells don’t? Plant
cells have a few extra cell organelles. For example, plant cells
have a cell wall, chloroplasts and a large vacuole.
Animal cells do have one structure that plant cells do not.
It is the centriole. However, you will not be able to see this part
with your microscope. It isn’t powerful enough.
You will be looking at your very own cheek cells as an
example of an animal cell. In addition, you will look at a leaf from
an aquarium plant called elodea. The elodea cells are green
because they contain chlorophyll which traps light energy for
photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows the plant to make its own
food.
Materials
Microscope slides
Toothpicks
Methylene Blue
Cover slips
Dropper
Water
Forceps Elodea leaves
Lugol’s solution
Procedure
Cheek Cells
1. Place one drop of water on a microscope slide. Gently brush a
flat toothpick against the inside of your cheek. Stir the water
with this end of your toothpick. AFTERWARDS,
IMMEDIATELY BREAK THE TOOTHPICK AND THROW IT
AWAY.
2. Add a small drop of methylene blue stain to the slide and cover
it with a cover slip.
3. View your slide under low (100X) and high (400X) power. Draw
and label each in the circles below.
Low Power
High Power
Leaf Cells
4. Break off a small leaf that is very green from the elodea plant.
5. Place the entire leaf on a drop of water on your microscope
slide and cover it with a coverslip.
6. Examine and draw the leaf under low and high power.
Low Power
High Power
7. Warm your slide over the light on your microscope. Be careful
not to burn your cells. View your slide under high power and
describe what you see happening.
8. Break off another elodea leaf and place it in Lugol’s solution on
a microscope slide. Cover your leaf with a cover slip and look
at it under low and high power. Draw and label what you see.
Low Power
High Power
Conclusion
1. What structures do cheek cells and elodea leaf cells have in
common?
2. How do human cheek cells and elodea cells differ?
3. After heating your elodea leaf slide, the chloroplasts were
moving. How do you think that this happens? What is a name
for this movement?
4. What did the stain do to the elodea leaf cells?