Jake Ball

Honors Biology
Mrs. Murray
1/10/16
Magic School Bus: The Lost Episode
As the bell rang, Mrs. Murray walked into class with an exciting plan in mind.
Mrs. Murray began saying, Alright class, today we are going to before she was
interrupted by Jake coming in late. Jake apologized, Sorry Mrs. Murray, I got held up
trying to get my locker open. Mrs. Murray replied, I am sorry Jake, but due to you
constantly coming in late to class, I must penalize you. I am afraid you cannot come on
the exciting field trip we have today. Although Jake was very disappointed, he
understood her reasoning and sat down with no argument. Mrs. Murray then addressed
the rest of the class, Alright everyone, time to board the Magic School Bus! Leaving
Jake behind, the class walked outside to the bus. When everyone was inside, Mrs. Murray
explained, Alright class, today we are going to be exploring a living cell. We are going
to actually explore one of Jakes cells, which is why he had to stay behind. With that,
Mrs. Murray shrunk the bus to the size of a fly, and flew it over to the classroom.
She then drove the bus down to Jakes left arm and shrunk the bus even further.
She stopped when the skin cell in front of them dwarfed the bus in size.
Mrs. Murray pointed to the membrane in front of them and began to explain, We are
now in front of the cells Plasma Membrane. Colton, do you know what the Plasma
Membrane does? Colton responded, It separates the cell from everything around it, and
it regulates what enters and exits the cell. Mrs. Murray told him that he was correct, and
continued foreword through the membrane.
As she reached the inside of the cell, and asked, Does anyone know what the
name for the area we are now entering? A couple students raised their hands, and Mrs.
Murray called on James. He responded by saying, Is it the cytoplasm Mrs. Murray?
Yes James, She replied, You are absolutely right. The cytoplasm is this entire region
on the inside of the cell besides the nucleus. Do you also know what is supporting this
area, and the cell in general? James sadly shook his head. When no one else decided to
speak up, Mrs. Murray explained, The cytoskeleton is what supports a cell. It is found
everywhere in the cell in order to keep it supported. Now let us move on.
Mrs. Murray drove the bus to a nearby structure that looked like 3 figure eights
with two circles on either side of them. There was what looked like molecules entering
one side and exiting the other. This is the Golgi Body, class. It acts like a Post Office,
taking in proteins, packaging them, and sending them out to other cells. Joe spoke up,
Does that mean that those two circles on the end are Vesicles? Mrs. Murray nodded
asking for Joe to continue. Joe said, They are what takes in the proteins for the Golgi
Body as well as what transports packaged proteins away from the organelle. As the class
ooed and ahhed, Mrs. Murray drove toward a circular structure that looked like a button.
Without stopping, she explained, That is a Lysosome, class. We are not stopping by it

because if something punctures it, it releases chemicals that eat away the entire cell. It is
almost like a black hole just waiting to happen.
Mrs. Murray then drove farther forward, stopping in front of two structures. One
was peanut-shaped with a squiggly line going down it. The other looked like a well of
some sort. Mrs. Murray challenged the class, asking, Can anyone name
both of these structures and what they do? Lauren took the challenge,
replying, The peanut-shaped structure must be the Mitochondria. It
produces energy for the cell called ATP. It is akin to a powerhouse. The
other is a Vacuole, which stores nutrients and water for the cell. There
are many of them located inside an animal cell like this one, but only
one large one in a plant cell. Mrs. Murray responded, Very good
Lauren. You not only were able to name the two organelles, but also
perfectly described their functions. We will now move on to the central
area of the cell.
Next, Mrs. Murray brought the class to a circular structure
surrounded by wavy structures. She neared one of the wav structures,
saying, This is an Endoplasmic Reticulum. Luc, is it the Rough ER or
the Smooth ER. This is theSmooth ER, Luc answered, because it
has no ribosomes bound to it right? Correct. Mrs. Murray stated,
The Smooth ER produces lipids and sends them to the Golgi Body for
transportation. Meanwhile, the Rough ER produces proteins using
ribosomes attached to it. Can anyone tell me what ribosomes do?
Colton answered, There are two kinds of them. There are the ones you
talked about Mrs. Murray, the bound ones, and free ones that are
scattered throughout the cell. The bound ones make proteins in the
Rough ER to be transported and used outside of the cell. Meanwhile,
the free ones make proteins to be used within the cell to help it
function. Perfect, Mrs. Murray said, Now let us go the last
destination of our tour, the Nucleus.
The bus lurched through the Nuclear Envelope, making a stop
just inside of the Nucleus. Mrs. Murray finally asked, Joe, what is the
function of the Nucleus and what are we looking at right now? Joe
responded, The Nucleus is the brain of the cell so to speak. It controls
the cell using the DNA inside of it. Those strands we are seeing right
now are actually the DNA right there. Also, ahead of us is the
Nucleolus, which creates ribosomes. It resides within the Nucleus like a
Mayor in City Hall. That is absolutely correct Joe. Now let us leave
Jakes body and head back to the rest of the classroom.
With that they left the Nucleus, heading for the Cell Membrane.
They made it through the membrane, and flew to a nearby table. They
then grew to the size of a fly. Finally, they flew out to the Parking Lot
and landed in the buss parking spot. They grew once more, until they

were finally at normal size. As the class walked back to school, Mrs.
Murray heard an exclamation from one of the students, Just wait until
Jake hears what he missed.