Cell Poster Project

Instructions: You will produce a poster with a diagram of a cell that includes all of the cell organelles listed on the next page. Choose your list of organelles based upon whether or not you want to make a poster of a plant cell or an animal cell (for this assignment, each has the same number of organelles).

The key to earning the maximum number of points for this assignment is to be as accurate as you can when depicting cell organelles, using as many careful 2-D drawings that you make. It is easy to spot a poster in which minimal effort was used because the drawings are sloppy, lack clarity and vibrant colors. Yours should reflect the hard work and time that you put into it.

The other important part of this assignment is that you will be assigning a more commonly recognizable analogy or metaphor to each of the cell organelles, and finding pictures of those analogous objects to put on your poster so that it is clear to the viewer which object goes with which organelle. For instance, you might use picture of a government building as an analogy for the nucleus. This picture, clipped from a magazine, newspaper, or even printed from the web, will be pasted onto your poster somewhere outside of your cell drawing and you will use a line to connect it to your drawing of the nucleus inside the cell drawing. You will do this for each of the organelles, finding meaningful analogous objects that make sense to represent the organelles you will connect them to.

On the bottom of your poster, you will write (or attach a typed version of) a key that will explain why each analogous object image was used to describe each cell organelle. This must demonstrate your knowledge of the function of the cell organelles on the poster, or the key will not make sense of your use of analogies. You must be creative in your choosing of proper analogous objects. Do not copy other groups …create your own analogies, there are plenty to choose from. The more creative yours are, the more points they will earn you, but they must also be fitting for the cell organelles they represent or the creativity will be wasted. If you can manage to make your analogous objects relate to a single theme, you may be able to earn extra credit (again, as long as they are creative and fitting).

Here is a sample of what a poster may look like (please do not copy this one if you want points):

(I have obviously left a lot of pictures out so that your creativity can run wild)

Name: ______

Organelle Lists:

Plant Cell

  1. Nucleus
  2. Nuclear Membrane
  3. Central Vacuole
  4. Cell Wall
  5. Chloroplast
  6. Mitochondrion
  7. Cell Membrane
  8. Cytoplasm
  9. Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
  10. Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum
  11. Golgi Apparatus (or complex)
  12. Ribosome

Animal Cell

  1. Nucleus
  2. Nucleolus
  3. Nuclear Membrane
  4. Cell Membrane
  5. Mitochondrion
  6. Cytoplasm
  7. Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
  8. Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum
  9. Golgi Apparatus (or complex)
  10. Ribosome
  11. Lysosome
  12. Vacuole

Grading Rubric:

0 Points / 4 Points / 8 Points / 12 Points
Cell drawing clearly lacked effort, not 3-D, unclear, and/or missing more than ½ the organelles on the list / Cell drawing is not very clear, poor attempt at 3-D, or missing more than 2 organelles on the list / Cell drawing is less than clear, 3-D, and/or complete with all but 1-2 organelles on the list / Cell drawing is clear, realistic, 3-D, and complete with all organelles in the list
Organelle metaphors/ analogies are illogical or not present, and/or pictures do not make any sense / Organelle metaphors/ analogies are not very logical or creative, or pictures are unclear and irrelevant / Organelle metaphors/ analogies are a bit of a stretch, or not especially creative, and pictures are not clear/relevant / Organelle metaphors/ analogies are logical and creative, and the pictures of them used look clear and relevant
Key to metaphors/ analogies is missing several parts, insufficiently explained, and/or does not at all link organelles to pictures / Key to metaphors/ analogies is missing 1-2 parts, not at all thorough and/or does not properly link organelle functions to pictures used / Key to metaphors/ analogies is complete but not very thorough, and more or less links organelle functions to pictures used / Key to metaphors/ analogies is complete, thorough, and fully explains link between the organelle’s function and the picture used