Pre-AP+Lessons

Have a great Pre-AP Lesson? Or A way to modify an AP lesson for Pre-AP? Let us know here!
=French Fry Osmosis= (Great Inquiry Alternative to AP Lab 1: Diffusion & Osmosis)

= = =Plant Cell Models= try a corrugated cardboard box for the cell wall, with a plastic bag adhering to the inside for the cell membrane. Use various objects to represent various organelles inside, and glue them to threads to hang down inside, with the box inverted and open so students can look up inside. You might also consider making your room into a cell, and have students make papier mache (or styrofoam, or other material) models of mitochondria, chloroplasts, ER, nucleus, golgi apparaturs, ribosomes, etc. You can hang these from the ceiling on thread. This could be a contest, with extra credit to the winners.

My favorite demo of a plant cell was to have a plastic bag in a cardboard box, with various objects representing the functions of organelles. As I pulled each one out, I asked students to identify the organelle represented by that object. For example, batteries for mitochondria, solar cell for chloroplast, file box (or handbook) for the nucleus, tape or CD player for a ribosome...etc.

Another neat demo was a large, clear balloon with several green balls inserted inside (molecular model balls worked well), all inserted in a rectangular glass battery jar. I inflated the balloon, so it pressed against the glass walls of the battery jar, held the balloon opening closed with my fingers, and placed it on the overhead projector (or held it up for class to see), while moving it about sufficiently for the balls to move around inside. Then I let out the air, so the balloon collapsed away from the walls and around the balls - essentially what happens when you add salt water to a slide of Elodea leaf and see the chloroplasts cluster away from the cell walls. Let kids explain the analogies of the components of this demo.