6th Grade Science- 3D Animal Cells

My 6th grade class just finished learning about plant and animal cells! I really wanted to do a hands on activity with cells, so this past week we created 3D-models of an animal cell out of jello and candy.  My kids LOVED IT! In my opinion, they looked okay and I probably would make a few adjustments for next year, but like I said the kids had a blast! I mean come on, what 6th grader doesn't like artificial colors, sugar, and getting a bit messy!?  So here is what I did before we completed this lab.


Materials:  (A great project to do around Halloween!)

• Snack Sized Zip Plastic Bags = Cell Membrane
• Yellow/Orange Jello = Cytoplasm 
• Nerds = Ribosomes
• Skittles = lysosome
• Jelly Beans = centrosome
• Gopstoppers = vacuole
• Peel and Pull Twizzlers = Golgi Body 
• Raisins = mitochondria
• Gummy Worm = Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum 
• Sour Gummy Worm = Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum 
• Palmer Wrapped Eyeball Carmel Chocolate = Nucleus, Nucleolus, and Nuclear Membrane 

Before lesson:

Over the weekend, my oh-so-kind sister helped me make the jello and put the liquid jello in each snack sized plastic bag. We figured that about 3/4 cup of jello was a good amount for each student.  I bought 8 packages of jello for my 30 students and it worked perfectly.

After making the jello and putting them in the individual bags, we put all the little 30 zipped bags in the fridge to fully gel.  Then, we distributed all the candy the students would need in bags (dixie cups would work well too) so there wouldn't be 30 hands in the nerds box, skittle bag, raisin bag, etc.  After placing all the candy/material in individual bags, we took a break and ate some of the left over candy! Please, don't forget that step! ;)

Here are a few pictures of the prep work!

Lesson:

After going through an example, I passed out the individual jello bags and then had a student pass out the candy bags.  After passing out the bags, I had a poster and we went through the names and functions of each part of the cell.  I was really surprised how much the students remembered the functions and the names of each part of the cell. Once we got to the golgi body, I had students all take their twizzlers out and fold them like a wave to really make the golgi body stand out.  Finally, I had my students write a lab report and examine their 3D animal cell! I did not let them eat it in class, but would have to wait till they got home to eat it! Hope this is helpful and make's your students smile too!

Pictures soon to come!