Cell Structure & Function: Quick Site Review

[Sean Nash]

This is a collaborative resource review and aggregation for use in an upcoming unit.

Use this forum to share a website you found particularly interesting or informative on the topic of cellular structure and function. After surveying the site, and seeing what it has to offer, come back into the forum, link to the site, and describe what the reader/viewer can expect to find there. Review a site that you will stand behind as a rich resource.

Vary search terms to find unique sites, and remember: you cannot re-post one that has appeared before you in the thread. Try to mix & match: cells, cellular, "structure & function", "cell differentiation", differentiation, organelle, organelles, form, shape, etc.

When you post... if it is a simple link to a site, post that link and also perhaps links to other pages within the main site that you would like to direct your classmates to. If you have a really nice piece of video that you can embed directly into the discussion, do that here as well.

Be sure to tell us: why you chose the site. Why did this one stick out to you? Why does it do a good job of teaching the concepts involved in cell structure and function, or perhaps cell differentiation? What is it that makes you think this site carries a reasonable amount of authority? What is a criticism of the site if any? Is there something that could be added to make it even better for you as a learner? What is the main thing you learned already about cell structure & function from just your review of this website?

Image courtesy of PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) on Flickr.

[Taylor Woodruff]

I really like this website I found! It's freaking awesome! :)

I choose this site for a number of different reasons. For one, I really liked the pictures it used, they used a good mixture of real photos and animated photos to give you a real sense of what they actually look like and do. Also, I thought the way they described the functions and structures of cells were easy to read, but not too easy, so it kept me reading further and further into the site. A final reason I liked this site was, not only did it have pictures and descriptions of cells, but it also allowed you to interact with the cells. there were tons of games and animations that gave you a better idea of how cells work.

here's a cool picture that was on the site..showing 4 dead cells, and one dying cell.

Something that makes me think this has a reasonable amount of authority is that the website is made from the University of London, which says it's a school of medicine and dentistry. So, that seems pretty authoritative to me!

I don't really have anything to critisize about this website. But, the one thing that could make it better would be to have the "Blood Mobile" song, but I think it does ok without it ;)

The main thing I learned most from just reviewing this site is the life and death of cells. I learned that for most cells that die they are replaced. But, your brain, heart, and cartilage cells are never replaced! So, that was a scary fact for me to learn, because you can never gain back those cells if you loose them!

[Marcy Withrow]

I chose this site, because it contains a lot of videos and good, valid information. I think videos are a great and visual way to learn. I do have to say some of the videos on my website I linked are pretty weird, as in cheezy! But, for the most part, they do give nice information. It does a good job of giving the information; the info is right there. You don’t have to analyze or guess what the author is saying. It says, for example, nucleus, and gives the nucleolus’s information beside it. The main subtopics of my website is: cell membranes, cells/cytoplasm/organelles, DNA and protein synthesis, cell environment, movement across membranes, and cellular metabolism. The topics we should be focused on are “cell membranes” and “cells/cytoplasm/organelles”. Everything else we will learn sooner or later, they deal more with genetics and cellular respiration. Which, I’m sure, is soon to come.

This site has a domain of “.edu” which usually means it comes from a school or some sort of educational background. At the bottom of the page it has citations of where the literature was cited form. It gives the author’s names and the year it was published. The page is very large! I think it could have been broken down to make it more organized. The videos, as I said before, are kind of strange. A few of them I wouldn’t pick for a main source of learning. There’s not much more this page needs education wise. It has nice links, such as cells alive; the same site Terra linked. That site is amazing when working cells! The videos are interesting and the definitions are right there. So, I don’t think this site needs much more than that.

I watched the video “ Voyage Inside the Cell”. This video talks mainly about the cell membrane and how proteins and other things effect it along with effecting the cell. I didn’t know that proteins rise up to the cell membrane to pump and let go nutrients and mineral from the cell. While other proteins trap hormones that activate the cell telling it what to do. It can tell the cell to move, grow, divide, or even die. Also, I didn’t know that there were protein receptors that take larger hormones. The hormones tell the receptor what needs to be done. After this the receptor sends messenger molecules to enzymes and organelles. When the enzymes have the message they enter the endoplasmic reticulum. This releases calcium that triggers the cell activity. After that there are a few more steps. But, I didn’t know that all of that happens. It’s amazing the little itty bits of stuff that cells have and do.

Here is my link!

[Kylie Warner]

While researching I found this quiz. http://www.tvdsb.on.ca/westmin/science/Sbi3a1/cells/cellquiz.htm I focused more on the structure and function of a cell because I have forgotten everything. At least I thought I did. I honestly guessed on most of it but only missed about four questions. I think what I found most intriging about this was the pictures. I think that the way I learn is very visual and I know that on a test, not everything is colored and great but even when I was taking this quiz, I noticed shaped and connected it to what I learned before. Plus it was fun..which is always a good way for someone to learn. I think that maybe you can't depend on it in complete detail. But one thing that I have always noticed about pictures of cells, is there are always different ways to show what is inside the parts of the cell like the nucleus but the shapes are generally the same.

Here I found a video demonstrating cell division. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7204725871954420481# I think that I picked this because it's a different and more quickly demonstration of the division. Although I'm not entirely sure but maybe this is just an example of a cell dividing not an actual cell? But I still was confused on how cell division works so I found this link that I think does a good job explaining to me. http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/LSD-kinetochores.html I found it interesting because it explains not only what causes cell division but the "secrets" on cell division. And I had no clue there were any, but then again, science is always changing. I think that this link holds authority because it's an article from Berkeley. I learned more in this news letter than I had planned on. All I was looking for was the reason for cell division and took away reserach that colleges had been doing. I like that Marcy said that it's amazing about what cells can do because it blows my mind how small they are and yet they do so much and play such a big role, not only in our bodies but in every living organism. Not could survive with out them..that's a lot of pressure. =)

[Ali Bargu]

Okay. After looking at all those things posted those I searched for my site...
Then, finally I found something interesting. What about a site that explains a lot of things very quick and summarized?
That's what i found... Yes.. It has some multi-media problems... That means that is not a lot of pictures. But I like the fact that you can get a quick overview! THIS...! Comments are welcome because I am not sure if it is really a good source!

[Aziz Siddikov]

I found the video on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZZ3DD_tV9k&feature=related) which is pretty good. In eight minutes it will go through all life concepts of the cell. It shows the processes going on inside of cells. It is made by Harvard and has a lot of information. For the quick review it will be perfect. review not only for the high school students, but also for college students. And even can be for the teachers to.

In this video they are talking about processes that going on insede of cell such as, golgi packing the proteins, proteins carried in the cell, ribsosome making new proteins by using RNA, microtubes inside of cell, structure between cells. We already learned all this staff. But also I learned some new things. For example depending on the structure of proteins they can do different work: there proteins that motor proteins, they carry. Or about macrotubles, which is kind of road for the motor proteins. And a lot of other interesting things.
P.S. It is pretty good animated.

[james d green]

The whole "chalk talk" idea was AWESOME...at first i was in a massive brain fart then once my group stated to kick it in i like finally turned my brain on and it cam to me everything i knew... AND what i didn't know like the ATP produced and such... I knew most of the structure of a basic animal and plant cell...

this sweet site is a version of the "Mr. cell guy" only not so sweet... but its really cool and goes over MOST not all im sure of the possible activities that go on in a cell!!! CHECK IT OUT

[josh steltenpohl]

I chose this site because it has a lot of information that i did not know about "the cell." The site has good photo descriptions and other links on the site that will tell you more about the cell and it's parts.

http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~acarpi/NSC/13-cells.htm

[Shandis Cruz]

On my quest to find an awesome cell website I came across one that stood out to me! I am a visual learner so this site really helped me out. It not only showed the cell from a two-dimensional prospective, but also a three! I love that! It really helped me understand the different locations of the inhabitants of the cell.

Another thing that I really liked was that it chunked information. This really helped me out because I didn't feel that I was reading a ton of boring information, for every statement/ fact that was made there was also a correlating picture, which made it so much easier to understand!

This site did a fantastic job of breaking the parts of the cell down! It gave a a picture of each part and discusses the structure and function of it!I find that this site is a reliable source because I have compared this information with a few other sites and I have concluded that the information is factual. My only reservation is that it was last updated in January of 2000, but then again how much has changed? I think for learning the basics of this topic that this would be a site that I would use simply because the layout and pictures fit my learning style.

By viewing this site I was able to brush up my knowledge on the basic parts of a cell, which I was in much need of after Wednesdays activity!

[Marcy Withrow]

Shandis, I like this site! The compare and contrast it gives between Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic cells is great! This is definitely a site I would want to refer back to for valuable information.

[Terra Younger]

I like this site a lot... It's kind of boring-ish... But the way it chunks information and how it's worded is easy for me to understand. Kudos, Shandis.

[Hannah Rush]

The site that I discovered at 11:00 P.M. last night was this one.I was attracted to it because of the different tabs that it has. One tab is with the information, the next tab has a quiz over the information given, and the third and final tab has other helpful linksthat have to do with the topic researched. I think that the reason this site is so effective in teaching is because it does have the quiz that lets you know what you learned and the things that you may need to do more studying on. In the text on the site, it does a really good job at breaking the information down into sections that are easily understood.

I know this sounds really stupid, but I feel that the reason why the site is authoritive is because of it's name. "Vision Learning". I also visited the Vision Learning home and saw that it had many different subjects that it covered which also made me think it was authoritive. The author of this particular piece has a M.A./M.S. This leads me to believe that he may actually know what he is talking about. I also think that since it has other helpful tabs within the website that it is a good resource to use.

The only critism that I have of the site is it's lack of color. It does have some really good images of the lipid bilayer, but it is still kind of boring. I think it should have bright colors that would draw the attention of a reader. Of course I say that when I was instantly drawn to it. ;)

The main thing that I learned from this site was the 4 major parts of the cell theorem. 1--cells are the basic unit of life. 2--cells produce other cells. 3--basic chemical and physiological functions are done within a cell. 4--activies of cells depend on subcellular structures. It also explained that all cells contain a phospholipid bilayer, cytoplasm, and DNA and RNA. It showed pictures of a protozoan, a bacteria, an animal cell, and a plant cell and discussed the purposes of their shapes. It said that Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus whereas Prokaryotic cells don't have one.

After reading the information I decided to see what the quiz was all about. I took it and got 100% on it. This site was really helpful for me because after our chalktalk, I was having all of these different questions about cells that I couldn't seem to get a clear answer on. I am excited to learn about all the different organelles that make up a cell because within the passed 2 years, I seem to have forgotten most of the information I was given about them.

[Hannah Rush]

When I had this typed up in google docs it showed the different links that I had used. Now it's not showing them at all so this is the link that i chose for this assignment.
http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=64&..." target="_blank">