Lesson Two

Great lesson today -

Introduced the concept of cells using Lego building blocks as an example of how lots of individual pieces come together to make a larger object and told the story of Robert Hooke

Then down to some more practical work - lab coats on and safety glasses
.... the children really enjoyed making the onion skin slides with the extra "danger" of using a dye. And ..... we got to use the microscopes plugged into the school computers - at last !!

Lots of the children were able to make really good comparisons between the pond weed and onion skin. One exclaimed "it looks like a butterfly wing" . I made sure to point out to everyone as they were using the microscopes and snapping pictures that each cell as a big dot in the middle (see one of the images taken by Year 5 below)

At the end of the lesson I introduced some more science words for the children to use in their write up - cell wall, cell membrane and nucleus.

Next week - we will explore the difference between plant and animal cells - using their own cells.
Need to remember to bring home the methylene blue