"Work, Supermodel, You Better Work It, Girl of the World"

The last couple of years, I have had students build the "edible" cell model. I have never been terribly pleased with how it's gone, but I think they still took from it that cells are 3-D.  The last two years, I've used a plan from MyScienceBox as a guide, as well as a plan from Enchanted Learning. 

This year, I still used the MyScienceBox Slimy Cell plan as a basis, but I had students set up their key the day before we built the model.  The Slimy Cell plan has students use a ziploc bag to represent the cell membrane and instead of PVA, I use plain gelatin for the cytoplasm.  The first year I did this, I made a silly mistake.  For ease, I decided I would just buy hair gel.  I failed to think about the dissolving capabilities the alcohol content would have on the candies we used.  Whoops! 

The students were given a list of available candies, a few changed last minute due to availability.  They used their cell coloring packets and cell reading packets to help them justify why a particular candy should fit for that part. 

The next day, we took pictures of the cells and students wrote a short little description about the type of cell for their e-portfolio. This lesson is still not 100% what I would like it to be, but it's getting there.