SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
Grade/Subject
6-8 Science
Topic
Cells- Structure and Function
Task Title
Cell Synergy
Pacing
3-7 Classes
Task Overview
Description of Task: Students will use their knowledge of organelle functions to create an illustration for a
new textbook on cells for seventh graders. The illustration will compare the system a cell to an everyday
system in an object or place.
Rationale: Students will gain increased understanding of individual organelle functions and how they work
together towards overall cell function by comparing them to analogous components in other visible systems.
“To teach the skills of thinking without the analogy is like removing buds from a flowering tree.”
Bob Stanish, Misdanderings (1990)
Possible Teacher Misconceptions:
● It’s easy for students to make analogies.
● Students can easily imagine what’s happening inside a microscopic cell.
● Students understand the working parts of object or place like the engine in a plane or that a school
has a furnace.
● Students will explain their analogies in a deeper way without guidance.
● Constructing a cell model will teach students the actual functions of the organelles, not just structures
and shapes.
Essential Question(s)
● How are systems more than just the sum of their individual components?
● How are the individual components crucial to the function of a system as a whole?
● How are systems similar on micro and macro scales?
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
NGSS Performance Expectations / CT Framework for Science
Students who demonstrate understanding of LS1 can: Develop and use a model of a cell to
describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of a cell contribute to the function. (NGSS
MS-LS1-2)
CT Framework 7.2 (C15)
Science & Engineering
Practices
Developing and Using Models
Choose an item.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1.A: From Molecules to
Organisms: Structure and
Function
Click here to enter text.
Crosscutting Concepts
Structure and Function
Choose an item.
CCS Core Literacy Standards
SL.8.5 - Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information,
strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.
W.7.2.D - Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the
topic.
W.7.7 - Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and
generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation.
L.7.4 - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
ISTE Standards
(http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx)
☐ Creativity
☐ Communication and Collaboration
☐ Research and Information Fluency
☐ Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
K-D-U
DO
KNOW
Facts, formulas, information, vocabulary
Skills of the discipline, social skills, production
skills, processes (usually verbs/verb phrases)
Hint: Use the standards!
Vocabulary
● Cell
● Organelles
● Cell Wall
● Nucleus
● Mitochondria
● Chloroplast
● Cell Membrane
● Cytoplasm
● Model
● System
● Micro
● Macro
● Component
● Design a model of a cell and its organelles
● Use a model of a cell to describe the function
of a cell and its organelles
● Use metaphorical thinking to demonstrate
understanding of a cell
● Identify organelles by their shape and/or
function
● Use domain-specific vocabulary to
communicate understanding
● Distinguish between a plant and animal cell
● Communicate clearly using a visual display
● Conduct a short research project, drawing on
several sources to answer self- generated
questions
Extended Vocabulary
● Vacuole
● Endoplasmic Reticulum
● Golgi Body
● Ribosomes
● Lysosomes
● Centrioles
● Microtubules
Concepts
● Cell Theory○ Cells are the basic unit and
structure of all living things
○ All living things are made of cells
○ All cells arise from pre-existing
cells
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
● Each organelle is necessary for the cell’s
function
● Within cells, special structures are
responsible for particular functions, and
the cell-membrane forms the boundary
that controls what enters and leaves the
cell.
● Plant cells have cell walls, chloroplasts,
and a large central vacuole while animal
cells do not.
UNDERSTAND
Big ideas, generalizations, principles, concepts, ideas that transfer across situations
Students will understand that…Click here to enter text.
● The function of a system depends on the relationships among its parts.
● We can observe how a macro system works to learn/understand how microsystems work
and vice versa.
● We can see patterns of common functions on various scales.
● Concepts that are hard to understand can be communicated more clearly using visual
displays.
● Scientists often use models to investigate things that are not directly observable.
Notes for Teachers
●
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The product of a textbook illustration is simply a tool for the students to use while demonstrating their
new understanding and knowledge or organelles, functions, and systems. The ultimate goal is to
score the students’ acquired learning and students should not be penalized for poor artistic skills.
This should be expressed to the students at the beginning of the project.
Students may find factory, city, and school analogies online readily. It may be helpful to suggest
these as ideas and resources, but encourage students to make their own unique idea. What you do
not want is a student to turn in a complete drawing he or she copied without demonstrating a true
understanding of each organelle’s function.
Students may want to print pictures instead of illustrating their own work. This might be a strategy for
differentiation, though sometimes it can lead to poor quality work or a quick fix project.
If you do the cell city analogy activity as a class, you may want to remind the students of the
metaphor connections as they create their metaphors. “The past few days, we’ve looked at the cell
and its organelles as if it were a city. As a group, you and your partners compared each of the
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
●
●
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organelles to a specific city structure. For example, many of you chose the Mayor or the City Hall to
represent the nucleus, or the post office to represent the Golgi apparatus.”
Differentiation: If students need the project simplified, you may have the students just do the most
essential organelles, such as the membrane, nucleus, and mitochondria, or give them a list of
possible analogies/topics to choose from rather than creating one on their own.
Differentiation: We designed the task to relate to basic plant and animal cells. If you had a student
that wanted to do a fungus or protest that type of specialized cell would work for this assignment, but
a bacteria would not because they have no distinct organelles. An easy way to tell a student “no” to
this possible idea would be to explain that the seventh graders are only learning plant and animal
cells at this time.
In the presentation portion, the ultimate goal is to assess each student’s understanding of the
functions of the organelles they chose. There are several ways to do this that would accommodate
different class personalities and time constraints. For example:
○ Students might be broken into small groups that present their illustrations to other group
members. The group would be tasked with asking each other for detailed explanations of
how each metaphor fits the scenario and then choosing the best illustration (based on
content) of their group. As a teacher you would walk around to check understanding of each
student as they share to their group. You might want to call a “time” for presenters to switch
or let them flow naturally. The following class, each of the groups would present their best
illustration to the class. Peers would play the role of the textbook editors. They would critique
verbally or evaluate on a rubric the illustrations to choose the best submission.
○ Students who are in the audience while another student presents could have copies of the
project rubric to complete as they observe their peer’s presentation to use as the peer review
panel evaluation sheet.
○ You may have students write their explanations of their illustration as a paragraph for the
textbook. Students would hang the illustration and explanation around the room for a gallery
walk. The downfall of this evaluation technique is the students may find work on the internet
and copy it without understanding the organelles for themselves.
Possible Student Misconceptions
Students may believe that:
● Systems can function independently of their components.
● All cells are identical with cal internal structures.
● Cells are made up of other cells.
● Cells never die.
● Cell wall and cell membrane have the same function.
● Plant cells only have a cell wall and no membrane.
● All text is written and does not include diagrams, models, and graphs.
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
Materials & Resources
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Poster Board or paper
Colored pencils or markers
Cell diagram (plant and or animal)
Cell Organelle Reference Sheet (optional)
Youtube video “Cells Cells- Parts of the Cells Rap” http://youtu.be/-zafJKbMPA8 (optional)
Beads, balloons, plastic bags, corn syrup, cotton balls, and other objects that students could use to
physically model a cell (optional)
CELLS Alive website: www.cellsalive.com has interactive animations of plant and animal cells and
their organelles
Cell song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rABKB5aS2Zg Song about all the organelles by Mr.
Walkenfeld.
Make a mitosis movie: https://www.centreofthecell.org/games/
Directions for Students
The NRC (National Research Council) has decided that, within the NGSS (Next Generation
Science Standards), the complex study of cells will now be taught in seventh grade. You have
been hired by National Academies Press to illustrate the seventh grade science textbook, and they
have asked you to create a picture that compares cell organelles to parts of an everyday object or a
place to help them understand how all parts work together. The cell and its organelles can be
compared to almost anything, if you can think creatively enough!
Your diagram should be professional, clear, and correct in its science. You must appropriately
identify your illustration as either a plant or animal cell, based on the organelles included. You
must include the starred 3 organelles and at least 5 other organelles from the list below. You
should create your own metaphor and not use any previous examples you have seen or that have
been discussed.
Organelles (select 8):
Nucleus*
Cell membrane*
Cell Wall
Mitochondria*
Endoplasmic Reticulum
Chloroplast
* Must include in illustration
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Nuclear membrane
Cytoplasm
Lysosome
Golgi Body
Ribosome
Vacuole
SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
You will be responsible for presenting your textbook analogy to a peer review panel of your
classmates. You will need to clearly explain how your analogy accurately depicts the function of
each organelle and how the cell organelles work together as a system. It is your job to convince the
review panel to adopt your illustration as the one they should choose for their 7th grade textbook.
Your presentation must explain how the textbook user will be able to look at your illustration and be
able to infer how each system component functions as one of the cell’s organelles.
Rubric
Click here to enter text.
Suggested Inquiry-Based Instruction/Activities
In order to learn:
Students might:
(learnings identified in KDU)
(one or more learning experiences)
That a cell is a system like other systems
encountered in life:
To model creating a cell analogy
● Break into small groups to dissect the
question “How is a cell like a city?”
● Students should discuss how each
organelle’s function relates to a part of the
city. For example, the town hall is like the
nucleus in that it is where the city gets its
instructions.
● As a class, the groups give their examples of
analogies of the organelles. They can
debate the accuracy of each analogy and
which best describes each organelle.
● Students can list out their questions about
cell organelle functions.
● In the computer lab or classroom stations,
allow students to visit websites or view the
YouTube videos to search for their answers.
There is a list of recommended videos and
websites in the Materials & Resources
section.
The function of different organelles:
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
Why the organelles are located and shaped as
● Give students different objects such as a
they are:
plastic bag, corn syrup, jelly beans, balloon,
beads, etc. Ask students if, and how, they
How do the relative locations and or structures
could construct a physical model of the cell
the organelles relate to the cell’s overall
using the supplied items. In small groups,
function:
allow students to discuss which objects best
represent the different organelles and why.
● Have microscopes and prepared slides of
cells readily available. Allow students to
compare what they are seeing under the
microscopes to diagrams of cells found in
their research to create their model.
Students can also attempt to identify
specimens based on visible organelles and
knowledge of differences between plant and
animal cells.
How an animal’s cell membrane allows material
to pass in and out of the cell:
Example is: A screen on a window
●
Have students draw a window and screen or
use technology to visually show movement
of the smoke from candle going out of
window from screen.
The limitations of models:

Show students a simple model, such as a
globe. Explain that a globe is a model of
Earth. The model is similar to the real Earth
but is not exactly like it. Invite students to
observe the globe and notice ways in which it
is similar to Earth. Then, ask students to
identify ways it is different.
How a nucleus controls the cell:

Explain the relationships between owner of
football/basketball team and team, CEO of
company, motherboard/computer, brain of
human, engine of car, principal of school,
and superintendent of district. Expected
outcome is for students to understand how
an entity exerts control over an organism.
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SCIENCE Middle School: Cell Structures
Performance Task
The function of the Mitochondria:
 To illustrate how energy is provided from a
source, students will brainstorm four
examples of energy producing components
within a system. (Cell phone battery,
batteries in remote, electric cell for electric
car, solar cell for calculator, wind in a
windmill, food/water for humans).
Possible Student-Generated Inquiry Experiences
● Students can examine cells under a microscope to compare and contrast organelles visible
in plant versus animal cells, and construct knowledge of how they are similar and different.
● Research on computers
● Brainstorm different systems whose function is a result of different components or
subsystems working together
● Build cell models to analyze how their structure may influence their function
● Compelling Questions:
○ Where do you find diagrams that you use in daily life?
○ How is an analogy different than an explanation?
○ What is a possible downside to explaining a system using an analogy?
○ How does food make you grow?
○ Why do we grow? What causes it?
○ What tells your body to be the way it is?
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