Chapter 3: Cell Structure and their Functions

CHAPTER 3

Cells? OMG! I don’t know where to start because this is the topic I don’t want to be assign to me. My groupmates and I agreed to have a draw lots to be fair. Before I pick a number, I was whispering, “Please, wag cells ang mapunta sa akin.” Guess what? Sadly, I drawn cells. I was trying to trade my topic to my other groupmates but they don’t want it either. Well, I don’t have a choice, so I will just tell the things I learned about it.

Here we go, cells are very small, even our naked eyes can’t see, but by the use of a microscope, it allows us to visualize the cells.

The cell is the smallest unit of life in our bodies and each part of the cell has different functions. Can you believe that humans are composed of 75 trillions of cells? I can’t imagine that that kind of number is inside me. And over 200 different kind of cell are in my body, including nerve cells, skin cells, blood cells, bone cells, fat cells, muscle cells, and many more.

Parts of a cell:

Nucleus – control centre for all activity

Nucleoplasm – protoplasm in the nucleus

Nucleolus – contains more genetic information (RNA)

Cell membrane – outer boundary of the cell

Cell wall – protects and supports the cell

Cytoplasm – cell material outside the nucleus but within the cell membrane

Vacuoles – clear fluid sacs that act as storage areas for food, minerals, and waste

Mitochondria – power house of the cell

Chloroplasts – contains a green pigment known as chlorophyll which is important for photosynthesis

Ribosomes – tiny spherical bodies that help make proteins

Endoplasmic reticulum – connects the nuclear membrane to the cell membrane

Golgi bodies – help package protein

Lysosomes – suicide sacs

For further more explanation, here’s a video that will help you to understand more:

CELL DIVISION

Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. Cell division is usually a small segment of a larger cell cycle. This type of cell division in eukaryotes is known as mitosis, and leaves the daughter cell capable of dividing again. The corresponding sort of cell division in prokaryotes is known as binary fission. In another type of cell division present only in eukaryotes, called meiosis, a cell is permanently transformed into a gamete and may not divide again until fertilization. Right before the parent cell splits, it undergoes DNA replication.

Here is a video that will help you to further more understand the cell cycle:

Click the link below if you want to test your knowledge about CELLS:

http://gamequarium.com/cells.html

Our human anatomy and physiology (HAP) subject helps me further more understand the human body because back in my 1^st year highschool days, I didn’t pay attention to my biology subject which gives the basic knowledge I should know about HAP. Sir Ho is very kind even though sometimes we told him to repeat his explaination because we want to understand his lessons very well, maybe he can see to us that each one of us is very eager to learn HAP. Hope you enjoy and  understand my little knowledge about cells. Well, at first I never thought that I can do this blog but look where I am now, I’m near the ending. Actually, my topic about cells ends here.

End of Chapter 3