Calling all science geeks.. (gopherit are you there??)

[ErinC]

DD has to do an animal cell model. She doesn't want foam balls, because she says that is what everyone else is doing. We wanted to do an edible model, chocolate cookie, circus peanuts, .... but the school won't let her. Not healthy, not store bought,.... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So anyone else have any wonderful cell model ideas?? I thought about doing the homemade playdough thing, but she keeps looking at me like I'm nuts. You gotta love all these parent projects. Don't they know I already passed 5th grade.

[Ginger]

Fabric?? Like a pillow or something stuffed?

Too bad she can't do food. I remember doing one of candy when I was in school. Or a sheet cake would work good too.

[gopherit]

Gopher the Science Geek, checkin' in....

Well, if she wants it to look "cell-ish" she could do what I did way back when....suspend it all in Jello.

Not Jello, I guess, but clear gelatin. Did mine in a cake pan, I think. Used clay and wires and strings and such, and suspended them in a thick batch of clear gelatin. Messy, oh yes, but I wanted something "3D", LOL. My mom thought I was nuts. Only problem I had - kids always wanted to stick their fingers in it. :sosad: ANd it was kinda tricky - I had to wait til it was really thick... or all my stuff kept sinking. On second thought - maybe it wasn't such a good idea, LOL!

So here's another idea: Let her do it using bright, thick acrylic paints and coat it with a nice coat of glossy spray. Not as 3D as foam balls (or blobs in Jello, LOL) but very bright. You could use some of those great textural/cool paints - the gritty ones, the glow-in -the dark ones, the speckled ones, reflective ones - that could be a lot of fun and something she could easily draw out first in pencil, then paint herself. She could embed strings into the outside of the "cell" for the filaments, and embed some smaller stringy things as the microtubules. Maybe set in some glass or plastic beads for the lysosomes and peroxisomes. Dry pasta would be great for tubules too. So are they totally against ALL food, just perishable foods, or candy? And then stick cute little flags out of each area telling what each part is.

Fimo clay? I love that stuff - so much better than PlayDough or clay. But it could get pricey, though. Nice thing about it, you can make it and bake it and it keeps forever. Ooooh, you could amke the parts, bake them, and assemble them like a puzzle. Make little indentations where each part fits. And it comes in such cool colors. (As you can see, I'm all about the colors, LOL.)

How about cardboard interactive - draw the cell nice and bright (and BIG) on one layer of cardboard, then cut little "lift the flaps". Place a second piece of cardboard behind it with write-ups taped in place (or use white mat board and write in the right spot underneath to tell what each part is.) Interactive is always fun. Or does it have to be more 3D like a model?

I am curious though - How are the other kids using styrofoam balls? I can only think of a few things in the cell that could be represented by those.... :headscrat Usually they save those for the solar system, LOL.

It's really too bad about the food nix - I REALLY liked that idea. Especially the circus peanuts, LOL. It's about time they had a higher purpose in life. :goodvibes

Let us know what you come up with - and if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

[AFMom]

My kids just made these - they were cool!!!! They used ziplock baggies and filled them with clear hair gel - then suspended objects (beans, strings, etc) in the hair gel. The Ziplock was the outermost layer of the cell. Anyway - it wasn't the BEST representation of the cell - but I thought it was pretty creative!

[greenban]

Despite the effort I vote for the Gelatin Model!

Those circus peanuts make mighty fine (and mighty tasty) mitochondria. Chocolate chip cookies for Nucleii, Milk injected in globs for vacuoles, man-o-man, you gotta do it!

Plus, not only does it taste good, it strengthens you nails!

Good luck!

-Tony

P.S. I tried a search for: "Giant live attack amoebas" on google without results, sorry!

[ErinC]

Thanks for all your ideas. We ended up going the sewing route(thanks Ginger). We bought some felt and I sewed a "pillow" We used velcro to attach all the "parts" to the pillow. It looks "okay". We still have to label all the parts with DH's label maker. We ended up leaving town this weekend and we stopped by Michael's on our way out of town and grabbed the felt.

I think the food would have been really cool, but our school system has a "new" policy about food. I'm not sure which killed it. We can't bring any food that isn't "healthy" to school. I guess they don't consider Choc. Chip cookies healthy. The second rule this year is that anything that is brought to school, has to be store bought. No homemade snacks for parties or apparently projects. They want everything to have an ingredient label. I assume it has to do with allergies. All I know is that we asked about the food model and were told NO. :tapedshut :thumbsway

I'll try to post of pic of the model when we get it all finished. Thanks again for your help.

PS. Next time, I'm going to do the food model. I just won't ask for permission! After all, sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission!

[gopherit]

PS. Next time, I'm going to do the food model. I just won't ask for permission! After all, sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission!

That's one of our favorite sayings here at work, but it could have been tragic if they had pitched your kid's hard work in the trash, out of some sort of legal-born fear that a peanut-allergic kid might touch your child's project.

Our school has told us that all "class snacks" to be shared must be already in individually wrapped packages, but there's no rule against it being "homemade" or only "healthy". That wrapper-rule was imposed so snacks could be handed out expeditiously, and with no hand-to-food contact from giver to getter, LOL. We always have at least two bake sales during the year in which the students can buy the donated homemade goodies after lunch (fund raisers for various charities). SO I know we don't have a problem doling out the baked goodies, at least, not yet! BUt then, we're a private school, so perhaps we can "get away" with stuff like that a little easier.

Glad you arrived at a do-able plan! As I always comment to DH... you know, I could SWEAR we already completed elementary school, but my kids' teachers don't seem to believe it, because increasingly, they lump projects and homework onto our kids that require increasingly large amounts of parental support (even if nothing more than making the many "craft store runs" into town!!) I am starting to think that THEY think I'm downright igga-nernt!

[PixyDust]

I think the food would have been really cool, but our school system has a "new" policy about food. I'm not sure which killed it. We can't bring any food that isn't "healthy" to school. I guess they don't consider Choc. Chip cookies healthy. The second rule this year is that anything that is brought to school, has to be store bought. No homemade snacks for parties or apparently projects. They want everything to have an ingredient label. I assume it has to do with allergies. All I know is that we asked about the food model and were told NO. :tapedshut :thumbsway

My son's elementary school has had the following food rules in place since he's been there, and he's in 3rd grade this year:

no peanut foods - not even if they are in your lunch box for your consumption only. period. you're sent home if you don't comply

no home-made anything edible - no neato birthday cakes, no nothing unless it comes sealed in its original store packaging

all snacks must be healthy - and cereal bars are NOT considered healthy. That's right. I couldn't send frosted flakes cereal bars for my son's snack.

I'm all about trying to curb the childhood obesity problem, but I think when you're telling me that my son can't have a cereal bar for snack, you're going a little far. Especially since he was in the 100 mile runners club last year...

EDIT: Sorry this rant was OT, but I just get so irritated when I think about it.

[TW1]

OK it's DD's turn to build the cell model out of jello.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

We did find a recipe using regular Jell-O brand combined with Knox Brand clear gelatin which sounds like it will hold up better. DDs teacjer says the entire thing MUST be made from food products, though the end result is not necessarily edible. (e.g. uncooked pasta.)

Gopher, on a Nothing Thread post you mentioned that the M&M's melted in the jello and were pretty messy.

Any other pitfalls to avoid?

Thanks so much.

[KNWVIKING]

Just ask Erin to send you hers.

[TW1]

I suggested putting some pretzels in a frozen Yuengling but DW just gave me the look.

[ErinC]

Just ask Erin to send you hers.
:ROTFL: These days you could probably buy one off ebay! TW1 said theirs has to be edible. We ended up making ours out of felt, not too tasty!

Sorry TW1- but I can't help with the jello one, make sure you PM gopherit so she can reply.

[gopherit]

DS ended up getting this same assignment not too long after Erin's dd - he ended up doing his in gelatin. We bought the Knox gelatin and I made it "double strength (half the water). I also did it as a "quick set" (dissolve the gelatin in half as much water, then once dissolved, add the rest of the water as ice water.) We added a few drops of food color (green) for "accent". DS then used one of those hideous spiky rubber balls that some kids wear on their heads - don't quite know how to describe it - and stretched it around the bottom and edges of the pie plate - that made it look pretty cool, haha, like a cell cut open. But I guess that's not going to help you, TW, is it, since it's not edible (although someone should tell that to Mr. Buns, because he is ALWAYS after that thing if DS leaves it out on the floor when Mr. Buns takes his daily hop...) But I digress. Here's some things we learned:

M&Ms will melt in the jello - it's gross. You get this "cloud" of color that looks like your M&M died and gave off toxic waste. Go with "solids" like peanuts or beans. WIll the macaroni swell too? I wonder.

Even the hard candies were tricky - DS had a half of a big gumball as his center and it got goopy where it touched the surface of the jello. Basically ANYTHING that dissolves in water is going to give you frets with Jello. Are ya SURE you want to do Jello at all? What about a big cookie? Or a pizza crust? THen you could use things like frosting (or sauce) for color, candies for the various parts (or pepperonis and cheeses)... probably a lot easier! (And tastier... Evan's Jello looked REALLY lovely, especially once the mold kicked in...)
:yuck:

[TW1]

Thanks Gopher.

DD pulled off a rather cool jello cell, pretty much solo.

We too did the double strength, but a combo of Knox and Jell-O brand. While that was setting I took her up to the store and she dug through the bulk candy bins, 3 of these, 2 of those, etc.

Seems she picked good stuff cause all bu the red hots held up. Those little red guys were completely gone in the morning. Makes you wonder what Jello reall does to you. The rest of the candy was fairly hard and the little it did desintegrate actually added to the effect in my opinion.

Now its on to the Khadijah project. I'll save those rants for the Hot Tub.

[gopherit]

Yeah, I'm with you on the "wonder what it's doing to us when we eat it" question. DS10 and his buddy did a science fair project on which "sour" candy was the most sour. Aside from doing the usual product testing (having folks "sample" the candies), they also did some pH testing. They put a single piece of the candy into 500 mL of water (your standard bottle-o-water). I wondered if the pH would even drop at all - I knew the stuff was sour, but c'mon. Boy was I in for a shock when a single Shock Tart produced a pH of 4 and a Sour Warhead gave a pH of 2. Good Lordy, that's some wicked stuff. One can only imagine what it does to your teeth. I think all that sour candy is endorsed by the ADA in order to boost filling sales, LOL.

I know at one point in the project, the boys were having people determine which Warhead was the most sour: green, yellow or blue. When I and the mom of the other boy did the test, we both privately agreed we hadn't felt like that since our college binge drinking days - I was ill for the rest of the day! And it burned my tongue, which didn't recover fully for another 2 days. I can't really complain, since it says right on the package to limit your consumption because it could cause "mouth irritation". I think they needed to change "could" to WILL.

And just an FYI - seemed like the green was the worst. As best we can tell, they put a dash more malic acid in it, to give it more sour apple flavor, and malic lasts longer on the tongue than citric. So if you want to relive your college hangover days, pop a few green Warheads and smile through the taste of bile - :blech:

(Glad your Jello project worked out!! :thumbsup: )