Activity Overview
If you are looking for a fun, creative, and hands on way to learn about cell structure and the functions of the organelles within a cell, follow these easy steps to create your own cell city. Cell Cities can be made as elaborate as you would like them to be, so get those creative juices flowing when it comes to materials.
You will need
Paper or project board
Crayons, Markers, or Paint
Optional Items (recycled materials, craft supplies, glue, tape)
How to Make It
The idea is to compare the parts of a cell to the inner workings of a functioning city. To do this, you can either draw on paper or assemble a city out of craft supplies on a sturdy craft board. Draw or use crafts and recycled and craft materials to create a city with actual buildings and vehicles that best represent the function of the organelles that you choose to highlight.
Some of the content that you will want to include in your cell city are: Nucleus, cell membrane, lysosomes, ribosomes, Chromatin, Rough and Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum, nuclear pores, mitochondrion, vacuoles, and the Golgi Apparatus. Find out what their jobs are.
The fun part of this project is that you can relate cell function to how a town functions and use your creativity to come up with the endless possibilities. Your nucleus might be the town hall because of the important information that is stored there; while the lysosome might be the recycling center, waste management, or sewage treatment plant because it processes and eliminates waste.
By doing this project, children are better able to visualize the functionality of a cell and they will undoubtedly retain the information in a more fun and engaging manner. For added information retention; on a separate piece of paper, on the back or orally, give one sentence for each town structure that gives a detail as to why you chose the correlation for each.
