Download Plant and animal cells

TESSA Secondary
Resource 2
Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils
Plant and animal cells: true–false exercise
The following statements are about cells.
Read each statement and then in your group decide, for each statement, whether it is
true (T) or false (F). If you are not sure put ‘?’.
Write the letter or symbol to show your decision in the middle column. Use the last
column to explain your reasons.
Statement
1
All cells have a nucleus.
2
There is a cell membrane around all cells.
3
All cells have a cell wall.
4
Chromosomes are found in the cytoplasm.
5
The cell membrane controls what the cell will
look like and how it behaves.
6
The nucleus controls what passes into and
out of a cell.
7
A nucleus is smaller than a chloroplast.
8
A chloroplast is larger than a mitochondrion.
9
All cells have a central cell vacuole filled with
fluid.
10
The cell membrane is made of cellulose.
11
The nucleus is always found in the middle of
a cell.
12
A nucleus is smaller than a molecule.
13
Some cells in your body are one metre long.
14
If you looked through a magnifying glass at a
red blood cell, it would look like the dot at the
end of this sentence.
15
A fully grown human is made of about one
hundred million, million cells.
16
Fifty typical cells lying side by side would
measure about 1 mm.
17
Cells are black and white. There is no colour
in a cell.
18
If you could shrink and stand in a cell,
everything would be silent and still.
True,
false or
unsure
Comment –
reasons for your
choice
TESSA Secondary
Teachers’ notes: statements 1–9
Statement
True, false
or unsure
Notes for teachers
All cells have a nucleus.
True, with
some
qualifications.
See notes.
All plant and animal cells have a nucleus. In some cells, the nucleus may have
disintegrated by the time the cell reaches maturity. Red blood cells have a
nucleus when they are developing. However, when they are mature and doing
their job of carrying oxygen round the body, the nucleus has broken down. The
whole cell is full of the oxygen-carrying pigment called haemoglobin. Bacterial
cells are usually described as having a nuclear area, rather than a true nucleus,
because there is not a nuclear membrane round the nuclear area.
There is a cell membrane around all cells.
True
All cells have a cell wall.
False
Plant cells are surrounded by a cell membrane and outside this is a fairly rigid
cell wall. The cell wall gives the plant cell a more definite shape than an animal
cell. Animal cells do not have a cell wall. They are surrounded by a cell
membrane only. A cell membrane is much more flexible that a cell wall.
Chromosomes are found in the cytoplasm.
False
Chromosomes are found in the nucleus.
The cell membrane controls what the cell will
look like and how it behaves.
False
The nucleus controls what the cell looks like and how it behaves.
The nucleus controls what passes into and out
of a cell.
False
The cell membrane controls what passes into and out of a cell.
A nucleus is smaller than a chloroplast.
False
A nucleus is about three times as big as a chloroplast.
A chloroplast is larger than a mitochondrion.
True
A chloroplast is three or four times larger than a mitochondrion.
All cells have a central cell vacuole filled with
fluid.
False
Plant cells have a central cell vacuole filled with fluid, called cell sap. Animal cells
do not. Animal cells may contain one or several small vacuoles.
TESSA Secondary
Teachers’ notes: statements 10–18
10
The cell membrane is made of cellulose.
False
Plant cell walls are made of cellulose. Cell membranes of both plant and
animal cells are made of protein and lipid.
11
The nucleus is always found in the middle of
a cell.
False
The nucleus may be found in the middle or around the edge of a cell.
12
A nucleus is smaller than a molecule.
False
A nucleus is much larger than a molecule. The nucleus contains chromosomes
– 46 in human cells. Each chromosome is made of a DNA molecule.
13
Some cells in your body are as long as metre. True
14
If you looked through a magnifying glass at a
red blood cell, it would look like the dot at the
end of this sentence.
True
15
A fully grown human is made of about one
hundred million million cells.
True
16
Fifty typical cells lying side by side would
measure about 1 mm.
True
17
Cells are black and white. There is no colour
in a cell.
False
Chloroplasts are found in most plant cells. Chloroplasts contain the green
pigment chlorophyll. Cells in flower petals will contain coloured pigments either
in special structures like chloroplasts in the cytoplasm or dissolved in the cell
sap. Animal cells, e.g. in the skin and eye of human will also contain coloured
pigments.
18
If you could shrink and stand in a cell,
everything would be silent and still.
False
Everything would certainly not be still. Cytoplasm is continually moving around.
Molecules would be moving in and out of cells. In a muscle cell you might find
yourself squeezed and released from time to time.
Nerve cells are made up of a compact cell body with long thread like fibres
extending out from the cell body. Some of these fibres, called axons, may be
up to one metre long. Nerve messages are carried along these fibres.
The swishing of the streaming cytoplasm is likely to set up vibrations. Sound is
vibration. If you could manage to shrink to fit in a cell your ears could probably
manage to detect these vibrations as sounds!