Contextual Teaching

By Anthony Pellegrini

Original lessonTaken from www.biologycorner.com

Cell City Analogy• In a far away city called Grant City, the main export and production product is the steel widget. Everyone in

the town has something to do with steel widget making and the entire town is designed to build and export widgets. The town hall has the instructions for widget making, widgets come in all shapes and sizes and any citizen of Grant can get the instructions and begin making their own widgets. Widgets are generally produced in small shops around the city, these small shops can be built by the carpenter's union (whose headquarters are in town hall).

• After the widget is constructed, they are placed on special carts which can deliver the widget anywhere in the city. In order for a widget to be exported, the carts take the widget to the postal office, where the widgets are packaged and labeled for export. Sometimes widgets don't turn out right, and the "rejects" are sent to the scrap yard where they are broken down for parts or destroyed altogether. The town powers the widget shops and carts from a hydraulic dam that is in the city. The entire city is enclosed by a large wooden fence, only the postal trucks (and citizens with proper passports) are allowed outside the city.

• Match the parts of the city (underlined) with the parts of the cell.• 1. Mitochondria _____________________________________________• 2. Ribosomes _____________________________________________• 3. Nucleus _____________________________________________• 4. Endoplasmic Reticulum____________________________________________• 5. Golgi Apparatus _____________________________________________• 6. Protein _____________________________________________• 7. Cell Membrane _____________________________________________• 8. Lysosomes _____________________________________________• 9. Nucleolus _____________________________________________• ** Create your own analogy of the cell using a different model. Some ideas might be: a school, a house, a

factory, or anything you can imagine**

Classroom Profile

• 9th grade biology• 85% African-American, 15% Latino– Two emotionally handicap students, three learning

disability students, and one student with mild mental handicaps. Also, of the four Latino students, two are designated still in the ESL program

• School is located in a very poor neighborhood with a high mobility rate, most children come from homes with no father and the free and reduced lunch rate is over 90%

Modifications

• To modify this lesson to be more appropriate for my specific class profile I chose to integrate a popular inner-city sport into my lesson as a cell analogy and also modify the lesson to incorporate pictures as way as to make purpose more apparent

• To do this I used basketball as an analogy to cellular structure and function

=

Point Guard/

Rough ER

Shooting

Guard/ Golgi

Power Forward/

Smooth ER

Center/

Smooth ER

Small

Forward/

Rough ER

Coach/

Ribosome

Points = Proteins

Defensive & offensive Coach = DNA Owner =

Nucleolus

Lysosome

Lysosome

Lysosome

Mitochondrion

Owners Booth = Nucleus

Cel l P a r t s

Nou n A na logy

Clu es & Des cr ip t i ons

Cell Body Basketball arena

Provides the location for cell parts to live and for many activities of working parts, deliveries of products, and

players to score points

Cell Membrane/wall Outer walls/ court tape Provides the boundaries for

activities that go on within the cell

Chromosomes/DNA Offensive & Defensive coordinator

The plans for how the cells are built and how plays are to be

executed

Cytoplasm People in attendance The parts of the cell outside the nucleus

Cytoskeleton Hallways Provides paths for parts of the cell to move

Golgi Apparatus Shooting Guard

Usually teams best shooter; Primary point scorer producing

most finished products, consistently hitting 20ft/6 meter

jump shots

Lysosome Janitor Wonders the cell picking up what shouldn't be there

Mitochondrion Generator of arena Provides power so players can see and create finished points

Nucleus Owners Box

Holds Offensive & Defensive coordinator, the cell's DNA, and the most prominent portion of

the nucleus, the owner

Nucleolus Owner Most identifiable part of the nucleus/ booth

Nuclear Envelope Glass surrounding owners box Surrounds Nucleus

Ribosome Coach

Takes messages from DNA and turns them into general plays that will ultimately result in

finished products/points; Turns orders from the box into plays for the team to critique and

score from

Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum

Point guard & Small forward

Floor general sets up plays for scoring opportunities and also

contributes with small foul points from small forwards

The wall around the city is like the cell membrane. The wall controls movement of people and items coming in and out of the city through the various ports of entry that are controlled by immigration. The cell membrane controls movement of items in and out of the cell through various pores

The castle is like the cell's nucleus. The castle is the control centre of the city, it regulates all activity in the city. The nucleus is the control center of the cell regulating all cell activity.

The castle wall is like the nuclear membrane. The castle wall controls movement in and out of the castle through guarded entrances. The nuclear membrane controls the movement of substances in and out of the nucleus through pores.

The king is like the cell's chromosomes. The king is found in the castle, he directs all activities in the city including expansion and creation of another kingdom should the city grow too large. Chromosomes are found in the nucleus and directs all activities of the cell including growth and reproduction.

The city roads are like the endoplasmic reticulum. Roads are the transport system which allows materials to be carried throughout the city. The ER is a transport system that carries materials throughout the cell.

The machine shops are like the cell's ribosomes. The machine shops are built along the roads, here they create materials to build the city, instruction is received at the tech school located in the castle. Ribosomes are attached to the ER, they are protein factories that create the cells building materials. They receive instruction from the nucleolus in the nucleus.

The windmill is like the cell's chloroplast. The windmill transforms the raw energy of wind into productive energy for the city like the chloroplast transforms the raw energy of the sun into productive energy for the cell.

The Garden is like the Cell's Mitochondria. The Garden takes manure and seeds that have been brought into the city and transforms them into food that provides energy for the people and horses. The mitochondria produces ATP which is food for the cell allowing it to function.

The grocer and lagoon in the city act like a cell's vacuole. The grocer stores the food for the city and the lagoon is where the city waste is stored. The vacuole stores both the cells waste and food.

The horse drawn wagons are like the cell's lysosomes. The wagons travel around the city collecting peoples garbage and fixing up what needs to be repaired. The lysosomes move around the cell cleaning up and doing cell maintenance.

A Cell is Like . . .

• Create your own analogy of the cell using a different model. Some ideas might be: a school, a house, a factory, or anything you can imagine