Download Animal vs. Plant Cell

Ani mal vs . Pl ant Cel l
Name _____________________
Class_________________
Background:
The two major types of cells are plant and animal
cells. Plant and animal cells have many organelles in common such as the
cell membrane, nucleus, chromosomes, ribosome, mitochondria, and sometimes
lysosomes. Plants have organelles that animals do not have such as chloroplasts and a
cell wall. You would need a pretty powerful microscope to view these organelles.
In this exercise, you will be asked to observe a plant and an animal cell under
the microscope. Your microscope is not powerful enough to see most of the
organelles in these cells. Your group will try to come up with characteristics of each
cell that would enable someone to decipher the difference between these two types
of cells using a relatively low magnification microscope, the compound microscope.
Problem: How can someone tell the difference between an animal cell
and a plant cell with a compound microscope?
Materials:____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Procedure:
Mounting a Specimen
1- Gently scrap the inside of your cheek with a wooden splint. You
have plenty of dead epithelial (cheek) cells that will come off.
2- Paste your cells on the center of the first glass slide.
3- Place a drop of iodine onto the cells.
4- Cover the cells with a cover slide and tap out the air bubbles.
1
Ani mal vs . Pl ant Cel l
Animal Cell
Plant Cell
Viewing a Specimen Under a Microscope
1- View each cell slide under the microscope.
2-Start with the lowest magnification (40x), center the specimen and work up to the
highest (400x) if possible. Remember your total magnification includes the objects
lens times the eyepiece.
Example: a 10x eyepiece and 40x objective lens equals; 10 x 40 = 400x.
3- Record all observations.
2
Ani mal vs . Pl ant Cel l
Observations
Draw one animal and one plant cell under the magnification that you would advise
others to use if they needed to tell the difference between an animal and a plant
cell. Label all the organelles that you see. Remember to include the eyepiece (10X) in
the magnification.
Best Magnification for an Animal Cell
Best Magnification for a Plant Cell
__________________
__________________
Animal Cell Drawing
Plant Cell Drawing
3
Ani mal vs . Pl ant Cel l
1- How could you tell the difference between a plant and animal cell using a
compound microscope?
2- What organelles of a plant cell can you see with your microscope? What
organelles of an animal cell can you see with your microscope?
3- What is the best magnification to observe a plant cell? Best magnification of an
animal cell? Remember to include the eye piece magnification.
4- Why do you think it was necessary to use iodine to stain the cells?
5- Based on the diagram to the
right, would the cell diagram be a
plant or animal cell? Why?
4