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Building Animal Cells Virtual Lab

Help determine what a bear ate before it died by building the structure and choose the internal organelles of the four basic types of animal cells found inside the bear’s mouth.

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High School

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Building Animal Cells

About this Simulation

This short, targeted simulation is adapted from the full-length “Cell Structure: Cell theory and internal organelles” simulation.

In this simulation, you will learn about the structures and internal organelles of animal cells. Physical structures of the four basic animal cell types will be highlighted and the function and importance of each internal organelle will be discussed. Oh, and you will have to take a tissue sample from inside the mouth of a bear. Watch out for the sharp teeth!

Investigate a bear’s death 

Hikers have discovered a dead bear on their trail and it’s your mission to determine why it died. Maybe it was poisoned or maybe it died of underlying causes such as old age? Standing in the middle of a secluded forest, you must build up the courage to take a sample from inside the bear’s mouth. Then, build the potentially deadly organism by building 4 cells representative of each basic type of animal tissue: neural, epithelial, muscle and connective tissue. 

Build the cells 

Students will be challenged to choose the correct internal organelles for the animal cells. You will learn about the function and importance of the nucleus, ER, cytoskeleton, Golgi apparatus, lysosomes, ribosomes, and mitochondria. Then, determine which cellular structures are unique to specific animal cells such as sarcomeres, tight junctions, axons, dendrites and the extracellular matrix. 

Uncover the mysterious death of the bear Put together everything you have learned about organelles and cellular structures to build each type of cell in the mystery organism. At the end, will you be able to figure out what killed the bear and uncover the mystery?

Learning Objectives

At the end of this simulation, you will be able to:

  • Describe the different intracellular and extracellular components forming eukaryotic cells

Techniques in Lab

At the end of this simulation, you will be able to:

  • Microscopic analysis
  • Cell observation

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