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Hi all!! HELP! I'm looking for ideas/resources for cool, dynamic, student-centered, hands-on cells laboratories. Ideas that I am interested in are those that involve students doing the lab versus merely looking through microscopes observing phenomena. I need to add some "spice" to my cells unit. Greatly appreciated!

Hi Rochelle, Thanks for posting this question. I was looking for exciting cell ideas a couple months ago and several people shared some good ideas with me. I am still interested in learning about any good lessons that I could incorporate into my curriculum to make it more engaging! I would recommend looking at another community forum titled "Cell Division and Differentiation" - there are alot of shared ideas. Someone had suggested doing some kind of jello lab for cells - where there are different candies imbedded to represent different organelles. Students have to be able to identify the different organelles and describe their function. There were also some creative ideas about having groups make up songs/raps to describe the functions of each organelle. Have you also checked out any of the SciGuides? I have been looking at some of the suggested lesson plans and saw that there were many interesting ideas online. One that I liked involved looking at slides under a microscope as well as viewing a simulation of mitosis and then having groups create a flip book of mitosis.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I didn't check the sciguide yet, however, I do incorporate edible or 3D cells projects as well as other activity/exercise type lessons in my cells unit. I was looking for more hands-on experiment type lessons where the students are actually engaged in the inquiry and laboratory process besides just the observation of onion cells, etc.. I appreciate you feedback...please keep me posted on anything else you come across...I'm open to anything and everything! Again, I appreciate you taking time to share with me!