← Back to the activity

Year 9 Science — The cell and what is inside it

Name the parts of a plant and an animal cell and say what each does, tell a prokaryotic cell from a eukaryotic one, and use osmosis to explain what happens to a cell in salty water.

Name: ________________________

Before you start

The parts of a cell, each one named.

1234
  1. 1. The round body with a smaller body inside it — the nucleus
  2. 2. The rod with folded lines inside — a mitochondrion
  3. 3. The large clear space — the vacuole
  4. 4. The stack of folded sheets — the endoplasmic reticulum

The outline round the whole thing is the cell membrane. On a plant cell there would be a stiffer layer of cellulose outside it again, and green ovals of chloroplast among the organelles.

  1. 1.What is the one-word name for the movement of water across a selectively permeable membrane?

  2. 2.Match each organelle to the job it does in the cell.

    • Ribosome
    • Golgi apparatus
    • Lysosome
    • Mitochondrion
    • Chloroplast
    • Releasing the energy a cell runs on
    • Breaking down waste and worn-out parts
    • Where proteins are made
    • Making food using sunlight
    • Packing materials into vesicles for transport

  3. 3.Tap the part of this cell that holds the chromosomes.

    Write the number of the part.

    1234

  4. 4.A Rhoeo leaf peel is mounted in a strong sugar solution. Its cells lose water, yet the outline of each cell stays the same shape. What accounts for that?

    • a) The vacuole refills from the sugar solution as fast as water leaves
    • b) The rigid cell wall holds the outer shape while the membrane pulls inwards
    • c) Plant cells cannot lose water through their membranes
    • d) The chloroplasts stiffen and hold the cell out

  5. 5.Put the journey of a protein that is going to be secreted into order, starting from A ribosome on the rough endoplasmic reticulum makes the protein.

    • The Golgi apparatus packs it into a vesicle
    • The Golgi apparatus modifies and sorts it
    • A ribosome on the rough endoplasmic reticulum makes the protein
    • The vesicle carries it out to the cell membrane
    • The rough endoplasmic reticulum passes it on

  6. 6.A piece of potato is left in a 20 per cent salt solution for an hour. What happens to it, and why?

    • a) It shrinks, because salt is drawn out of the cells into the water
    • b) Nothing changes, because the membrane blocks both water and salt
    • c) It swells, because salt is drawn into the cells from the solution
    • d) It shrinks, because water leaves the cells for the more concentrated solution

  7. 7.Where in the body does meiosis take place, and what does it produce?

    • a) In the cells of the reproductive organs, producing two identical cells
    • b) In the cells of the reproductive organs, producing four cells with half the chromosome number
    • c) In the cells of the skin, producing two identical cells
    • d) Throughout the body, producing four cells with the full chromosome number

  8. 8.Sort each feature by the kind of cell it belongs to.

    Groups: Prokaryotic cell · Eukaryotic cell

    • Membrane-bound organelles
    • A typical width of 1 to 10 micrometres
    • A typical width of 10 to 100 micrometres
    • Genetic material in a bare nucleoid
    • Membrane-bound nucleus

Answer key — Year 9 Science — The cell and what is inside it

  1. 1. osmosis
  2. 2. Ribosome → Where proteins are made; Golgi apparatus → Packing materials into vesicles for transport; Lysosome → Breaking down waste and worn-out parts; Mitochondrion → Releasing the energy a cell runs on; Chloroplast → Making food using sunlight
  3. 3. 1 — The round body with a smaller body inside it
  4. 4. b) The rigid cell wall holds the outer shape while the membrane pulls inwards
  5. 5. 1. A ribosome on the rough endoplasmic reticulum makes the protein 2. The rough endoplasmic reticulum passes it on 3. The Golgi apparatus modifies and sorts it 4. The Golgi apparatus packs it into a vesicle 5. The vesicle carries it out to the cell membrane
  6. 6. d) It shrinks, because water leaves the cells for the more concentrated solution
  7. 7. b) In the cells of the reproductive organs, producing four cells with half the chromosome number
  8. 8. Genetic material in a bare nucleoid → Prokaryotic cell; A typical width of 1 to 10 micrometres → Prokaryotic cell; Membrane-bound organelles → Eukaryotic cell; Membrane-bound nucleus → Eukaryotic cell; A typical width of 10 to 100 micrometres → Eukaryotic cell