This led me to come across Ponder Monster: What are Cells Anyway? by Jen Adair
What a great book! I actually got it free on Kindle Unlimited on my phone. We tried to view it on the iPad but it wasn't free on there (?) so we did what we could on the screen of my iPhone.
Jen Adair really breaks it down for me, oops, my son to understand. I can't lie. All these homegrown lessons I do with my son, I'm learning too. I don't remember learning anything throughout my grade school years & middle school years, so this is my opportunity to do it. It's actually fun!
Back to the book, the author came up with some great examples to understand each function of the cell.
My son mentioned that one of his friends said that if we break a cell, we all die.
I pointed out to him how many cells does he think I have on my finger? Millions. OK, so if one dies, will I die? Nope.
Then, we talked about why a cell dies and we discussed about diseases like cancer.
After the story was over, he began to come up with ways to possibly increase the number of lysosomes or make them stronger to fight off the diseases. This is good. You want your student to think outside of the box. Whether you can or you cannot, it's not for your to judge their ideas because the reality is we don't know. There have been so many advances in the healthcare field that are mind boggling. I am honest with Vincent and tell him I don't know but that he can study more about it and find out.
For review, he had to name each part of the cell and its function. I would have him repeat it when he got it wrong until he got all the answers correct. We also cracked an egg and took a look at it to decipher it since eggs are the only cells we can see with the naked eye.
The Day an Egg Solved the Mystery of the Cell is a great supplemental lesson.
We also read and discussed how current research is using plant oils to attack cancer cells:
We also read and discussed how current research is using plant oils to attack cancer cells:
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