Cell Unit: Intro to Microbiology

If I should ever recover from the battle of keeping my house clean to sell (done with that now--our house sold!), I am going to start doing some homeschooling that doesn't include Real Estate 101 as the only primary subject.  Right now we have a two week breathing space before packing, moving, and unpacking, which is the perfect amount of time to start and finish the unit on cells that I already have put together.  While this is hardly an exhaustive microbiology unit it is perfect for the amount of time we have.  I'm hoping to keep the microscope handy and let the kids look at slides anytime during the two week period.  I might also add in some other fun activities as we go along.

24 March 2014: Monday

Read Cells: The Smallest Unit of Life
Read first five pages of Cells: Images
Watch Bill Nye youtube video about cells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6N82No4Nz8

Look at some slides under the microscope


25 March 2014: Tuesday

Read rest of Cells: Images
Read Cells: Animal Cells and Plant Cells

Learn how to make our own slides and look at water from the fish tank under the microscope.


26 March 2014: Wednesday

Read chapters one and two of Cells: Organization and Function 
Read first half of Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist's Microscope
Look at more slides under the microscope.

No school on Thursday

28 March 2014: Friday

Read rest of Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist's Microscope
Read rest of Cells: Organization and Function
Read Cells and Cell Function pgs. 12-15
Play cell matching game found here: http://www.hsprintables.com/files/partsofacelldefinitions.pdf (these were used as flashcards but I think they will work well as a game for my kids)

31 March 2014: Monday

Read Cells and Cell Function pgs. 28-29 and do the enclosed yeast experiment (more on this later)
Start new sourdough starter

Read Cells: Growing and Dividing
Play Parts of a Cell matching game again

1 April 2014: Tuesday

Read Alexander Fleming and His Great Discovery
Read Our Food!
Read Yuck!

Make worksheet cells--plant and animal--found at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lets-Build-A-Plant-Cell-639576.  You'll notice the link to the animal cell in the description of the item.  Here's the link in case you can't find it: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lets-Build-An-Animal-Cell-641356

2 April 2014: Wednesday

Make individual pizza cells:
crust = cytoplasm
pineapple = lysosome
onion = golgi body
olives = chromatin
ham = nucleus
orange cheese = nucleolus
pepperoni = centrioles
crust border = plasma membrane
spinach = smooth endoplasmic reticulum
spinach + sausage = rough endoplasmic reticulum
sausage = ribosomes
mushrooms = mitochondria

(Since I'm basically a very lazy person, I'll probably simplify our pizza instead of copying exactly any of the excellent examples I found online.)  Here's a few examples that I liked: http://journey2excellence.blogspot.com/2011/09/cells-its-whats-for-dinner.html;
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/childrens-museum/saturday-science-homemade-plant-cell-pizza.

Make big plant cell out of paper to use as place mats while we eat our animal cell pizzas.