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Name _______________
Period _____
What are the differences between plant and animal cells?
Objectives: Students will prepare and view slides of different cell types. Students will
sketch the cell structures and describe, in their own terms, the differences and
similarities between different cells.
Materials:
Microscope
Scalpel
Pipettes
Water
Slides and cover slips
Prepared slides
Methylene blue
Iodine
Elodea
Potato
Human cheek cells
Red Bell Pepper
Green bell pepper
Superbena Leaf
Other slide material
Caution with the scalpels and stains!!!
Procedure:
1. Remove a piece of the thin layer of transparent epidermal tissue from the inner surface of a
piece of onion.
a. Place a drop of water on the slide
b. Then place a small (Unwrinkled, hopefully) piece of the epidermal tissue in the
water.
c. Cover it with a cover slip
d. Examine the onion tissue under low power, and under high power
e. Remove the slide from the microscope
f. Place a drop of iodine next to one edge of the cover slip and touch a piece of paper
towel to the opposite edge. The stain will be drawn under the cover slip and into
the tissue.
g. Re-examine the onion tissue under low, medium, and high power.
h. Draw a few cells, and label the cell wall, nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane.
i. Wash your slide and use it for the next observation.
2. Slice a very thin piece of potato. Prepare the slide, with iodine stain, as described above.
Draw a few of the cells and label the cell wall and leucoplasts. (Iodine changes color from
brown to blue or black when it comes in contact with starch, and the leucoplasts are the
blue/black parts inside each potato cell).
3. Make a slide of a cheek cell, staining it with methylene blue, as you did in the previous lab.
Under high power sketch a few cells and label the cell membrane, nucleus, and cytoplasm.
4. Remove a single leaf from the Elodea plant. Place the leaf on a slide and add a drop of water
and the cover slip. Observe the leaf under low and medium power. Sketch it under medium
and label the cell wall, cell membrane, chloroplasts, vacuole, and nucleus (if they’re visible).
5. Make a thin slice of a colored pepper. Prepare a slide and observe. Sketch cells (under at
least medium power) and label cell walls, and chromoplasts (Chloroplasts are green in
green plants, so chromoplasts in different colored plants must be…).
6. Place a drop of pond water on a slide. Examine the slide under low and medium power
looking for microorganisms. Observe, draw and label at least one.
7. Slice off a piece of the Superbena or other plant leaf and try to peel off the bottom lasyer.
Observe the cells on at least medium power. Sketch and label the cells.
8. Choose a prepared slide. Observe on medium power, draw & label.
9. Sketch and label (On at least medium power) other cells in order to finish all the sketches,
and fill all the boxes.
10. Clean up and return microscopes.
Questions:
1. Name at least three ways in which Elodea and cheek cells differ.
a.
b.
c.
2. How do cheek cells and blood cells differ (other than color)?
3. What is stored in the leucoplasts of potato cells? How do you know?
4. What was in the chromoplasts of the pepper cells?
5. How many different types of cells did you find on the underside of the leaf? Describe each.
6. Describe three differences between plant and animal cells.
a.
b.
c.
Drawings
Cheek Cell
Onion Cell
____X
Blood Cell
Pond Water
_____X
Potato Cell
_____X
Elodea Leaf
_____X
Superbena
_____X
Colored Pepper
_____X
_____X
_____X
Other:
_____X