Name: Date:

Student Exploration: Cell Types

Vocabulary: ATP, bacteria, carbon dioxide (CO2), cell, cellular respiration, compound light
microscope, eukaryote, multicellular, muscle cell, neuron, organelle, photosynthesis, prokaryote,
protist, red blood cell, root hair cell, tissue, unicellular, white blood cell

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.

Growth and change, can reproduce, maintain homeostasis, being made of

cells
_____

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

They all share these characteristics of life

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? I see hexagonal cells with a

green cellular wall

2. Select the 400x magnification. If necessary, adjust the fine focus. Now, what do you see?

I see that the cell wall is made up by small green spheres called chloroplasts

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

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 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.

B Stage: Platform where a slide is placed.

A Eye piece: Lens at the top of the microscope

that the user looks though. 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.

E Objective lens: A second lens that further

magnifies the sample. Microscopes usually have
several objective 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. 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 Nucleus, Cell membrane, Cytoplasm 20 μm

Fly muscle 20 μm 

Nucleus, Striation, Cell membrane, Cytoplasm

Maple leaf Nucleus, Cell membrane, Cytoplasm, Cell wall, 10 μm 

Chloroplast, Vacoule
Elodea 40 μm 
Nucleus, Cell membrane, Cytoplasm, Cell wall,

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 Chloroplast, Vacoule

Fungus Nucleus, Cell membrane, Cytoplasm, Cell wall, 8 μm 

Vacuole, Septum

What do all of these samples have in common? The nucleus and the cell membrane,
as well cytoplasm

In eukaryotic cells, genetic material is contained inside a distinct, membrane-bound

nucleus. Plant and animal cells are classified as eukaryotes.

3. 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? 10 μm 

B. What organelles are present in E. coli? Cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm,
Flagelum, Pilus and Nucleoid.

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.

Get the Gizmo ready:

Activity B:
 On the LANDSCAPE tab, click on the woman’s
Specialized cells
head to choose the human neuron sample.

Question: How do a cell’s specialized structures relate to its function?

1. Collect data: Use the microscope to observe the samples listed in the table below. For each
sample, estimate the cell size and check off the organelles that are present. If there is no
column for an organelle, list it in the Special structure(s) column.

Estimated Nucleu Cell Special

Sample Cytoplasm
size (μm) s membrane structure(s)
Human neuron 15 μm Yes  Yes Yes Yes
Human skin 10 μm   Yes  Yes Yes  No
Human muscle 20 μm  Yes  Yes Yes  Yes
Human blood 5 μm Yes Yes Yes No

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2. Observe: Select the human skin sample. On the MICROSCOPE tab, choose the 400x
magnification, focus on the sample, and turn on Show labels. Click on the Nucleus label. If
necessary, adjust the Stage sliders to see the full description.

A. What is the function of the nucleus? The nucleus contains the cell`s DNA. The
nucleus controls the cell by regulating when genes are turned on and off

B. What is the function of the cytoplasm? A gel-like substance that is

composed mostly of water and contains all of the cell’s organelles.

C. What is the function of the cell membrane? A lipid bilayer that sorrounds and
protects the cell, regulating what goes in an out.

Activity C: 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?

1. Observe: Compare the microalgae, the Elodea leaf cells, the maple leaf cells, and the root
hair cells at 400x. Sketch each below:

Microalgae Elodea Maple leaf Root hair

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

membrane, Cytoplasm, Cell wal, Vacoule

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

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

hair cells? Doing the Photosynthesis and this structure is missing from the

root hair cells because the sunlight doesn’t reach them.

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? They are isolated

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

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