How to Make Your First Science Project

Several weeks ago Julie was assigned her first science project - make a 3D replica of either a plant cell or an animal cell.  The plant cell was more complicated, so, of course, that's the one she chose.

You paint styrofoam ball cell nuclei in your bathing suit too, don't you?  Don't forget to add the playdoh center.

That nucleus was put inside a handy Amazon box because a plant cell has a rectangular shape (that was worth 10 points).  Julie lined the box inside and outside with yellow paper (cell wall - 10 points), then we lined it with saran wrap (the cell membrane, another 10 points).  Our goal was to make the box leak proof for the hair gel cytoplasm to be added later (10 points).

Unfortunately, as you can see, that plan didn't work.  It leaked.  But, thankfully, that didn't make a difference on her grade.

Cell wall - Amazon box
Cell membrane - Saran wrap
Chloroplasts - 2 shades of green playdoh
Nucleus - painted styrofoam ball with a fourth cut out. Center is orange playdoh.
Vacuole - shower puff thing with little piece of sponge inside (to be the waste in the vacuole)
Cytoplasm - very smelly, cheap hair gel (don't recommend that for future projects)

Including each of these parts was a total of 60 points.  Turning it in on time was another 20 points.  Correct cell shape was worth 10 points and labeling everything was the final 10.

All in all, it was a fun project.  We enjoyed working on it together and figuring out what to use for each part.  Julie was very proud of it and got 100!!