Plant and Animal Cells

        Oh my God. I'm so scared. We're locked in a room. HELP! We're at Shreiner Academy. SOS! In a room. The only locked room. Call the SWAT team. Break down the door and get us out. Our teachers are crazy! Our animal cells are in danger. The plant cells aren't. Lucky plant cells.
        Oh, false alarm. Well, not really. They did take us, but it was for good reasons. Anyway, we're supposed to be learning about plant and animal cells. They may look different, but they're the same in some ways. And they're different in some ways. Let's start with the similarities first.
        Plant and animal cells are both eukaryotic. This means that that they both have proper nucleus. They both have mitochondria, a nucleus, Golgi apparatus, cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum(smooth and rough), ribosomes, and so on. They are both living, obviously, and they both need food.

        Now, the differences. Plant cells have a cell wall as well as a cell membrane while animal cells have only a cell membrane. Both animal cells and plant cells need food, yes, but the difference is that plant cells can make their own food with photosynthesis. Plant cells have something called chloroplast which is what conducts photosynthesis. They also produce chlorophyll, which makes the plant green. The shape is different, too. A plant cell is rectangular(fixed shape), and an animal cell is round(irregular shape). Lysosomes are in animal cells, in the cytoplasm. They're not usually evident in plant cells, though.
         Ever wonder why leaves change color? Well, whether you like it or not, you're going to learn  about it. Okay, I told you about chlorophyll, right? Well, during the winter, the leaves go into hibernation, so the leaf does not produce chlorophyll or photosynthesis. It lives off of the food it has stored. Since the leaf does not produce chlorophyll, the leaf does not turn green. Leaves survive during the spring and summer, and dies during the fall and winter. Which means they have very short lives. Poor leaves.
        Well, that wraps it up for today. If you want to know more, again, simply go to youngro-jalenguy or SuperSara's blogs. Well, until next time!
P.S. Here's a picture of an animal cell:

Cells Made Easy

        Cells are important. Very important. In fact, without cells, you wouldn't be here! They are what keeps you alive. But a cell is not what it seems. Because inside a cell, there is a factory, castle, house, school, or whatever going on. There are workers, bosses, kings, walls, bodyguards, and so on. It's actually very cool, and you should be interested because, as I said before, they're what keeps you alive and well. Since what goes on inside a cell can be pretty complicated, I'll make it easy.

• The nucleus: In a factory, the nucleus would be the boss. It controls the cell. It's usually round and darker than the rest of the cell.
• Cell membrane: In a castle, the cell membrane would be the bodyguard. It protects the inside of the cell. The cell membrane supports and gives a cell its shape. It also controls the movement of materials(food, water, waste) into and out of a cell.
• Cytoplasm: It's basically the wall of the cell. The nucleus floats in the cytoplasm. Most of the cell is made up of cytoplasm. Most of the cells activities take place in the cytoplasm.
• Mitochondria: The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. It produces the cells energy. They're rice shaped structures that are so small, you need an electronic microscope to see them. They break down food to make energy for the cell.
• Lysosomes: In a school, the lysosomes would be the janitors, or clean up crew. Lysosomes are small, round structures that are involved with the digestive activities of the cell. They also digest old cell parts. They contain enzymes that break down large food molecules into smaller ones.
• Vacuoles: They are like storage bins. They store food, wastes, and some hold water.They pump extra water out of the cell.
• Ribosomes: Ribosomes are small, round structures in the cytoplasm . They make protein needed for cell growth and repair . They can help fight certain diseases. Ribosomes are the cells most numerous organelles.

        I know, I know. It's not easy. But it is interesting. I couldn't make it so easy that you could do it in your sleep, but nothing is so simple. It takes a lot of brain power to memorize stuff, so I hope you have some to spare. If you want to learn more about cells, simply go to youngro-jalenguy's blog, or to SuperSara's. Peace, me out!

Memories in Florida

        We were all excited to go to Florida. We wanted to drive at night, because we thought it would be funner. Boy, were we wrong. Monday started out relatively simple, despite the fact we weren't supposed to be in school. We were supposed to be in Florida by then, but since the space shuttle had been canceled. We were supposed to get to Shreiner at seven or eight. 
        When we got there, there was no one. We went to the Welcome Center, no one. We went up the hill, no one. So we headed back down to the Welcome Center and waited. After a couple of minutes, people started arriving.
         Before long, the place was packed. I found my fellow classmate and most of sixth grade. We waited, and waited, until the coach bus finally arrived. It was huge. We packed our suitcases on the bottom of the bus, then put a couple of the bags we wanted to keep in the overhead compartments. It was kind of like a mini airport. Once everyone got on board, the bus got moving. We waved a last goodbye to our parents, then we were off. It was very dark, and I was sleepy.
        But I was awake. For some reason, I just couldn't get to sleep. The seats were just not comfortable. But when we started watching WALL-E, I managed.



       When we got there, no one had gotten a good sleep and it was about eight o' clock in the morning. So you can understand that we were all tired. I had five other people sharing the room with me, and four other people in the other room. Our room got messy in the first five minutes, but that was pretty much expected with six bodies in one small room. 



 

        After we got settled in the rooms, we headed to the Kennedy Space Center. We ate a quick breakfast of muffins, cinnamon rolls, and breakfast bars. We fed some of the leftover muffins to the birds. That is, until the teachers told us to stop.

        We were all tired, but we managed to see some pretty cool stuff. We saw space suits, we saw the first seven astronauts, we saw a shuttle, we saw satalites, we saw--, well, you get the picture. We saw an IMAX movie, but almost all of us slept through it.

         Afterward, we rode a ride called the Space Simulator. The way the guy was ranting on about it, I'd expected it to be the best ride of the century, but alas, it really wasn't. It was maybe five minutes, and the seats were shaking, then it stopped and then we were 'floating in space'. What I thought ruined it was when they opened the top of the thing, and they showed 'Earth'. I mean, if it really was Earth, and we were really in space, what kind of idiot would open the door when there's no air? Anyway, after that we went in the gift shop and stood in line for two hours, which wasn't very fun. 

Space Simulator

       So, here's the rotten cherry on top of this tasteless ice cream: once we got out of the gift shop, we were greeted with this news: the space shuttle launch has been postponed! And it's getting postponed the day we're leaving, and guess what? The time it supposed to launch is the time we're going to be on the road! Not exactly the best news in the world. In fact, it's one of the worst. But anyway, we were all really angry, sad, and disappointed. I mean, it's not everyday you get to see a space shuttle launch. Apparently, we weren't going to see it. The teachers kept saying, "We knew this was a risk, and we took it. It got postponed, and we can't do anything about it." The thing is, no one told us about this 'risk', no one told us we might no get to see the launch. I mean, a heads up would've been nice.

        We got into the coach bus, all of us complaining, and went to Pizza Hut. We were all very smart about what to get, saving money and stuff, because we had to pay. It turns out, the school paid. We got back in the coach bus, all of us sleepy, and drove to the hotel. We took a shower, brushed our teeth, and went to sleep. We were all so dead tired we were asleep before our heads hit the pillow. Actually, that's an exaggeration, but we were dead tired. 

        In the morning, we woke up, brushed our teeth, changed our clothes and went to go have breakfast. This time, we had breakfast inside the hotel, instead of at the Kennedy Space Center. It was good. After breakfast, we went to Cocoa Beach.

Cocoa Beach

      It was really fun. We saw five dead jelly fish, one alive jelly, and small fish. We walked along the beach, looking for really good shells. After about an hour of this, we tried building a working river in the sand. We had the skeleton, but we couldn't get the water flowing. It was still pretty cool. 

        After the beach we went back to the Kennedy Space Center, but this time we were split in groups. Our group went to the nature exhibit, then we saw more space stuff, and then we went to the same movie we went the day before, except this time, we were awake, and boy, those picture at the end were fantastic. They were breath-taking. After the movie, we went to another exhibit, then went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at the hotel-- salad, spaghetti, bread sticks, garlic bread, and chicken with cheese on top. It was an amazing dinner. Since we were so energetic during dinner, our teachers decided to bring us outside to burn it off. We all decided to play freeze tag and our math teacher, Mrs. Crimminger, was it. There was no moon, but the sky was peppered with stars. They provided enough light for us to see by. 

        When we got back to our room, our principal, Mrs. Sarah, told us that if they didn't postpone it again, we would see the shuttle launch then leave for home. With that, we all read and played cards. Lights out was at eleven thirty, and when it was lights out, we all slept soundly. The next morning, Mrs. Crimminger informed us that the launch had been postponed yet again. So we packed the coach bus, got in and headed home. As we entered Shreiner, we cheered. We were home at last. 






   Here's what we were supposed to see: