Microscope Detectives
The piece of scientific equipment required to see tiny, individual cells clearly.
What is a microscope?
The "Boss’s Office" of the cell that holds all the genetic instructions (DNA).
What is the nucleus?
The "Solar Panel" organelles that plants have to make food, but animal cells lack completely.
What are chloroplasts?
The basic building block of all living things—the smallest level of life.
What is a cell?
The body system responsible for breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide.
What is the respiratory system?
The term for an organism—like an amoeba—that carries out all life functions using only one cell.
What is a unicellular (or single-celled) organism?
The "Power Plant" of the cell responsible for generating energy for all cell activities.
What is the mitochondria?
The process plant cells use to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into sugar food.
What is photosynthesis?
A group of similar cells working together to perform a single job.
What is a tissue?
The body system made of the heart, blood, and blood vessels that transports nutrients and oxygen.
What is the circulatory system?
If you look at onion skin, cheek swabs, sand, and pond water under a microscope, these two non-living items will NOT show cellular structures.
What is sand (and cotton/polyester cloth)?
The "Security Guard" or front gate that decides what goes into and comes out of a cell.
What is the Cell Membrane?
The tough, rigid outer layer that gives plant cells their boxy shape and keeps trees standing tall.
What is the cell wall?
The level of organization formed when multiple types of tissues work together (examples: stomach, heart, lungs).
What is an organ?
When running in gym class, these two systems work together to deliver oxygen from the air to your muscle cells.
What are the respiratory and circulatory systems?
The reason why an oak tree needs millions of specialized cells while a bacterium only needs one.
What is because the tree is a multicellular organism that relies on specialized teams of cells?
What will happen to a cell if all of its mitochondria suddenly stop working.
What is running out of energy to survive/function?
The main reason animal cells do NOT need chloroplasts.
What is because animals eat food to get energy instead of making it from sunlight?
The correct order of body organization from simplest to most complex.
What is Cell --> Tissue --> Organ --> Organ System?
How damage to stomach tissue cells affects the rest of the body’s subsystems.
What is preventing the digestive system from breaking down food and delivering nutrients to other body cells?
The key piece of microscopic evidence that proves an unknown object was once alive.
What is seeing repeating cellular structures under the microscope?
The gel-like fluid filling the inside of the cell where all internal parts float.
What is cytoplasm?
The two specific structures present in plant cells that are absent in animal cells.
What are chloroplasts and cell walls?
Why a group of stomach tissue cells working alone cannot digest food without the rest of the stomach organ and digestive system
What is because complex functions require multiple specialized tissues and organs working together in a system?
The body system that breaks down food into small nutrients that your circulatory system can carry to cells.
What is the digestive system?