Cells: A World A Part
Created by Brian Gibbens, Ph.D.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to. . .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify cell parts and explain their function
Explain how defects in a cell part can result in
human disease
Generate thought-provoking questions that
expand upon existing knowledge
Create a hypothesis and experimental plan to
answer a cell part question
Find and reference relevant cell biology
journal articles
Complete Catalog of Cell Parts
“The one who does the
work does the learning.”
Top 10 Reasons for Doing This
10. It’ll be on the test.
9.
8.
7.
6.
Practice asking questions
Explore answers to your own
questions
5. Don’t waste time
covering what you
already know
4. Practice teamwork skills
& time management
3. Practice for LTP2
Practice finding papers
2. Avoid a boring lecture
Practice reading papers
1. Discover the why cell
biology is practical
Identify Your Team’s Cell Part
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Nucleus
Centrosome
Rough ER
Smooth ER
Cytoskeleton
Peroxisome
Golgi apparatus
Lysosome
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Ribosome
Plasma Membrane
Peroxisome
Glycocalyx
Vesicles
Vacuole
Mitochondria
Chloroplast
Your group # corresponds to your assigned cell part.
Cell Part Activity
• Step 1: Record everything your team knows
about this cell part on a piece of paper. (5 min)
• Step 2: What don’t you know about this cell part?
Compose a list of questions. (5 min)
• Step 3: Select your 1-3 favorite questions. (5 min)
– Is the answer is already known? Search the web.
– If not, propose an experiment to answer it.
Find the Worksheet Online
• Use the worksheet to create your team’s
presentation.
Worksheet Questions
1.
What do you already know about your cell part? What does it do?
2.
What questions do you have about your cell part?
3.
Using online review articles and primary literature articles, try to
answer the questions you posed above. What did you learn in your
research that you didn’t know before?
4.
What is still unknown about your cell part? What research is still
being done?
5.
How does your cell part relate to human disease?
Next class period each group will present their slides to other
groups.
Example Slide from Past Presentations
Muddiest Point Minute Paper
• What questions do you
have? What are you most
confused about?
• Hand these in today
• Review and answer these
questions for exam
Debrief
1. Thinking about the big picture, what is the most
important thing you learned about cell parts
today?
2. What did you get out of the poster session that
you wouldn’t have got out of a lecture?
3. What questions do you still have?
Debrief continued
Learning Goals of this exercise:
• Students will appreciate how cell parts relate to their lives and
future careers in research or medicine
• Students will think metacognatively to identify what they
know about a particular topic
• Students will improve their teamwork and time-management
skills as they answer the provided questions and create a
poster session presentation
5. Did this activity help you achieve the learning goals listed
above?
– If yes, please provide some examples.
– If no, explain what was missing.
The End
Possible Assessments
• Formative: Minute Paper about their Stickiest
Point, Presentation about their cell part, Class
discussion
• Summative: Quiz, Exam, Long Term Project