Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

what experiments can i do if my topic is cells? can i use things to represent cells? THX

there are lots of things you can do for a project about cells. it will depend a little bit on what kind of equipment you have available to you and how old you are/how much experience you have with science projects.

what kind of cells are you interested in? are you interested in a particular type of cell and how it works, what the parts of it do?

or are you interested in what the differences are between different types of cells and how to tell them apart?

you mention using things to represent cells. there are some interesting projects you can do that model the action of cells. you would need to do some good background work to get important details about the cells you are trying to represent.
for example you could model what happens to blood cells travelling through a blood vessel or forming a clot.
or blood cells that are infected with malaria parasite cells
or how the signal travels down a nerve cell

post back about what kinds of things you are interested and we can help you think some ideas through

best of luck,
caroline

finding out how nutrients go into cells or come out of cells? im doing a range of cells not sure which....thx for the idea....keep sending ideas if u hav more plz thx

that sounds like a good idea for a project. I have some questions to start off thing syou might think about for your background research...

what kinds of nutrients are you thinking about? do you think different nutrients are transported differently?

do you know what a membrane is?

do you know what "active transport" means? and "diffusion" ?- if you don't know those are good things to look up in a biology text book to start your background research.

also about how surface area and diffusion are related.

i think you could make a cool representation of different types of cells using some synthetic membranes to show how the different shapes and surface area of cells can effect diffusion of a colored "nutrient".

-caroline

i noe none of what u said...do cells transport differently? ok and thx for the advice.

i'm sorry i should've told u this..
i'm only 13 this year, i need advice based on my level about Science Fair..
sorry lol..

thanks for the extra info.

indeed different cells can transport things differently, and some nutrients are transported differently from others.

start off by trying to find some pictures of different kinds of cells, either on the internet or from a text book. Try to find the following to see how they are different shapes
1. yeast cell
2. human red blood cell (you might need to search with the latin word for red blood cell which is "erythrocyte")
3. human intestinal or stomach cell (latin word for stomach cell is "enterocyte")

what do you notice about the shape of these different kinds of cells?

they have different shapes and sizes?

thats right, they have different shapes and sizes.

try and describe what makes them different from each other.

then the big question is - how does that help them perform different tasks or functions?
(what is the major job that a red blood cells does?)

should i put Q and A for my science fair or juz put facts?
thx for ur help

I think a good way to display the information would be to make a table. You could list the questions down the rows and then put a column for each of the cell type you are comparing, perhaps with a picture of each at the top of the columns.
(Remember to keep track of where you get the facts from so that you can list them in your references section. )

Example of what i mean( i can't get the columns to line up nicely though)

Cell type | Red blood cell | Stomach or intestine cell
Latin name | erythrocyte | enterocyte
Main Function | Carry oxygen to body (1) | Absorb nutrients from food (2)
Shape
Features
etc

References (i made these up, you should list your own)
(1) from Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
(2) from Biology (2002), by Smith and Jones, Bio Press.
or wherever you found the information from

how do you reference a book and website....doing my bibliography now

how to reference a book and website....doing my bibliography now

thx for ur overall help i appreciate it..

science buddies has some good advice about all the different sections of a scince fair project (introduction/background, methods, results, conclusions, bibliography)
see this link for the references or bibliography section
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... tml#biblio