1.3 Cell Structure and Specialization

• describe the structure of plant and animal cells
• state the functions of the main cell organelles
• compare plant and animal cells
• relate the structure of specialised cells to their functions

“Why do cells in the same body look so different from one another?”

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1. The cell and its parts
   40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
   What a cell is, the job each part does, and how plant and animal cells differ.
2. Specialised cells
   40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
   How a cell's shape follows from the job it has to do.
3. Microscope parts and how to use it
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Name the parts of a compound light microscope and use it without breaking the slide or the lens.
4. Magnification
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Total magnification of the microscope, and how to work out the magnification of a drawing.
5. Preparing onion epidermis
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Peel, mount, stain and draw onion epidermis, then name the parts you can actually see.
6. The animal cell in detail
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   The parts of a typical animal cell, their arrangement, and how a cheek cell looks under the school microscope.
7. The plant cell in detail
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   The parts of a typical green plant cell and why wall, chloroplasts and a large vacuole belong together.
8. The nucleus
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   What the nucleus contains, what it does, and why a red blood cell is the famous exception.
9. The cell membrane
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   The membrane as a partially permeable boundary that controls what enters and leaves every cell.
10. Cytoplasm
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The jelly in which organelles sit and most chemical reactions of the cell take place.
11. Mitochondria
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Mitochondria release usable energy from food; active cells have many of them.
12. Chloroplasts
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Chloroplasts trap light and build sugar; they are found only in green plant cells.
13. The vacuole
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The large plant vacuole stores sap and keeps the cell turgid; animal vacuoles are small and temporary.
14. The cell wall
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The cellulose wall gives plant cells shape and support and stops them bursting; it does not control entry.
15. Ribosomes, ER and microscope limits
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Ribosomes make proteins and ER transports them, but a school microscope cannot show either.
16. Cell theory
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The three statements of cell theory, and the scientists who built them.
17. Unicellular and multicellular
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    One cell doing every job, versus many specialised cells sharing the work.
18. Levels of organisation
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Cell, tissue, organ, system, organism - the ladder that builds a maize plant and a person.
19. Red blood cell
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A biconcave disc with no nucleus, packed with haemoglobin, built to carry oxygen.
20. Root hair cell
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A long epidermal outgrowth that absorbs water and mineral salts from soil.
21. Palisade cell
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A column of cytoplasm packed with chloroplasts, standing where light is strongest in the leaf.
22. Sperm and egg
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Two specialised sex cells: a small swimming sperm and a large food-storing egg.
23. The neurone
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A nerve cell with a long axon, built to carry electrical impulses over distance.
24. Muscle cell
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Long fibres packed with contractile protein and mitochondria, built to shorten.
25. White blood cell
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Irregular cells with a nucleus, specialised to defend the body against pathogens.
26. Ciliated epithelium
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A sheet of cells with beating cilia that move mucus, dust and an egg along a tube.
27. Xylem vessel
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Dead, hollow, lignified tubes that carry water up a plant and hold the stem up.
28. Comparing plant and animal cells
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    A practice lesson: similarities, differences, and how to write a comparison in an exam.
29. Tissues
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Similar specialised cells working as a team: epithelium, muscle, xylem, palisade.
30. Organs and systems
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Several tissues make an organ; several organs make a system; systems make the organism.