How it works
These cell story ideas are premises for the assignment to write a story about a cell. Each casts the parts as characters or places and gives every part its real job, in the order the story meets it.
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Four parts every story needs
Each idea names at least these four with their jobs. The nucleus holds the instructions. The cell membrane decides what crosses into and out of the cell. The mitochondria supply the energy the cell uses. The ribosomes build proteins. Some ideas add the Golgi body, which packages proteins, or the lysosomes, which break down worn-out parts.
Pick the kind of story
The cell as a place turns the whole cell into a city, a ship or a kitchen. A day in the life follows one part. Something goes wrong stops one job and shows what depends on it. Plant cell against animal cell adds the wall, the chloroplasts and the large vacuole.
- Underline each part's name the first time it appears, with its job in the same sentence.
- A story about something going wrong shows a job most clearly: stop it and write what happens next.
Questions and answers
How do you write a story about a cell?
Turn the cell into a place or a cast of characters and give every part its real job. Start with a problem, such as a big delivery or a strike at the power stations, and let each part act in turn.
What can a cell be compared to in a story?
A city, a school, a sailing ship, a restaurant kitchen, a castle, a space station, a factory or an airport. In each, something guards the edge, something holds the instructions, something supplies the energy and something builds.
What are the main parts of a cell and their jobs?
The nucleus holds the genetic instructions. The cell membrane controls what enters and leaves. Mitochondria supply most of the cell's usable energy. Ribosomes build proteins. The Golgi body packages proteins, and lysosomes break down worn-out parts.
How is a plant cell different from an animal cell?
A plant cell has a cell wall outside its membrane, chloroplasts that make sugar from light, and one large vacuole. An animal cell has no cell wall and no chloroplasts. Both have a nucleus, a membrane, mitochondria and ribosomes.