May 2017 archive

Animal and Plant Cells

  1. a) The animal cell that we looked at was a swatch of Jordan’s cheek. We noticed that the few cells that we could see looked like little bubbles that were colorless. They had a darker rim that we thought was the cell membrane.
  2. The plant cell that we looked at was a red onion cell. It looked like many bubbles very close together. Some were bigger than others. We could see bits of purple throughout also. We could also see the cell wall and the cell membrane.
  3. Plant cells have many cells that appear more alike and “organized.” Many are also connected or very close together. Animal cells are further apart and there are less of them in the view of the microscope. Animal cells also seem smaller.
  4. We used the methylene blue on the animal cell because it makes the cells and the nucleus more visible. We didn’t use it on the plant cell because it wasn’t necessary for us to easily see all the cells and small details.
  5. Reflection:

During this lab I learnt that plant cells and animal cells are very similar except for a few things, including that animal cells are smaller, and are harder to be able see through the microscope. The plant cells were much more organized

A question that arose during the lab was why we had to use the methylene blue but we answered that question here.