Lesson Cycle

Lesson Title/Topic: Cell Theory

Standards/Rationale: TEKS 7.12 (F) recognize that according to cell theory all organisms are
composed of cells and cells carry on similar functions such as extracting energy from food to
sustain life.
This lesson gives students an opportunity to examine the complex concept of cell theory.

Learning Target: The student will create a timeline of the cell theory mentioning at
least three of the four contributors with at least two of the three accurate parts of the
theory.
Assessment: Completed timeline.

Materials:
Jar with fake meat, gauze, jar lid, iPads with access to Nearpod, long slips of paper for timelines.

Lesson Cycle: (Direct instruction)

The teacher will: The student will:

Focus/Mental Set: sample answer: the flies are unable
Hold up the jar with a fake piece of to smell the rotting meat if the jar is
meat in it (could be a piece of red closed air tight so they wont lay
playdough/dog treat or something eggs
else that resembles meat)
Ask if the jar sits out for 5 days will
there be flies around it?
Ask the class if we were to cover
the top with gauze will there still be
flies around the jar?
Ask will there be flies if we screw
on the lid? Have a student remove
the gauze and screw on the lid
Ask why flies appear on the first
two jars but not the last

Teacher Input: sample answer: fleas come from

Discuss: some people a long time
ago believed that flies originated
from rotting meat!
the idea was that living things could
come from inanimate objects. Fleas
could arise from dust or that
maggots could arise from dead
meat.
other fleas
sample answer: flies come from
maggots, and maggots come from
fly eggs
Get out their IPads and go to the
flipped classroom icon on their
home screen.
 Ask where fleas really come from.
Ask also where flies really come
from.
It was actually a man named
Francesco Redi who disproved the
belief that fleas and maggots could
come from dust and rotting meat.
From this discovery and with
contributions from other scientists
we got the cell theory!
Go to the Nearpod app on the IPad
to access the presentation.
Instruct the students to get out their
IPads and go to the Flipped
Classroom icon.
Instruct the students to click on
Nearpod.
Write the lesson code on the board
and instruct the students to type it
into the students section.
Present the lesson to the class via
Nearpod. All the information for
the presentation will be attached to
this document.
Guided Practice:
Instruct the students that we are
going to play a game. Tape on the
white board or wall in different
locations three sheets of paper each
one containing 1 part of the cell
theory. (Attached to this document.)
I will read a statements and once
Ive read it they should stand at the
part of the cell theory that they
think the statement fits under.
(statements will be attached to this
document)
Begin reading the statements one by
one giving students enough time to
move to the place in the room that
has the corresponding part of the
cell theory.
Encourage the students to discuss
why they think the statement fits
Select nearpod from the
applications in the flipped
classroom folder.
Type the code into the section titled
students.
Navigate through the lesson with
the teacher on nearpod.
Write notes over the slide show in
their science journal or in the notes
section of their IPad.
Walk to the part of cell theory that
they think the statement fits under.
They will stay there until all
students have picked a part and are
standing under it.
Discuss why they think the
statement fits under that part of cell
theory with the other people who
chose the same part of the theory as
them.
Once everyone has a chance to
discuss. They will tell all of their
classmates why they think the
statement fits under the part of the
theory they chose.
Listen to the next statement and
began to move when it is finished
being read.
Repeat this process until all the
statements have been read.
 where it does with the people who
chose the same part
Repeat the process until all the
statements have been read.

Independent Practice: Open nearpod lesson again
Have students open up nearpod Began the collaborate section of the
again lesson.
Instruct the students to start the Answer the question presented on
collaborate portion of the lesson. their IPad screen. once they have
Tell the students during the answered they will respond to 2 of
collaborate portion of nearpod they their classmates posts
will have to answer the question on Began the next collaborate question
the screen and once they have once the teacher has proceeded to
answered they need to respond to at the next screen.
least two of their classmates post. On each collaborate question
Once every one has responded tell respond to 2 of their classmates
the students that you are proceeding posts.
to the next question, the screen on
their IPad will automatically
proceed when you change It. (There
are 3 collaborate questions for the
students to respond to.)
Comment/respond to students
posts especially if something said is
wrong.

Closure: Share the first part of the cell theory

Ask students to share the 1st part of
cell theory with their shoulder
partner.
Tell the students to share the 2nd
part of cell theory with the person
seated in front of them
Tell the students to share the 3rd
part of cell theory with the person
diagonal to them.
with their shoulder partner and
discuss it briefly.
Share the 2nd part of cell theory
with the person seated in front of
them, and discuss it briefly.
Share the 3rd part of the cell theory
with the person seated diagonal
from them and discuss it briefly.

References:

Statements for the guided practice section:

1. A tree, a dog and a human all of something in common.

 2. A cell divides and makes a new cell.
3. Cells are the building blocks of life.
4. A chicken and a cat are both animals.
5. My dogs claws grow back even though I cut them.
Nearpod slide show explanation:

Slide 2: the cell theory is a theory that has three important parts, these parts help us with our
understanding of cells.

The first part of cell theory states that all living things are made up of cells. That means that
even though a tree, a horse, a fish, a butterfly and a bird dont really look like humans. Cells
give us all something in common. All of these have cells in them that convert food into energy.

Slide 3: part 2 of the cell theory states that the cell is the basic structural and functional unit of
life. In short cells are the building blocks of life. You can think of it this way, what is the smallest
part of a building? (Call on a specific student)(The bricks). We can think of our bodies as the
building and our cells as the bricks.

Slide 4: part three of the theory states that all cells come from pre-existing cells. This is the part
of the theory that the scientists made in response to spontaneous generation. We know that
maggots dont just appear on rotting meat out of thin air, and fleas dont just appear in dust
they come from other organisms that are the same as them. So flies come from maggots which
come from eggs which were laid by other flies. Fleas come from eggs that other fleas lay.

Slide 5: Matthias Schleiden, was a German botanist he found out that plant tissues are
composed of cells. He looked at plants in a microscope and determined that the cell is the basic
building block of all plant matter.

Slide 6: a year later in 1839 Theodor Schwann who was a German biologist concluded that
animal tissues are composed of cells. He was the first scientist to make a part of the cell theory.
He said that the cell is the basic unit of life after he realized that plants and animals are both
made of cells.

Slide 7: German physiologist, physician, pathologist, and anthropologist Rudolf Virchow was
able to add a third part to the cell theory: all cells develop only from existing cells. Virchow,
Rudolf (1821-1902),

Questions for Collaborate portion of the lesson:

1. How did technology help early scientists learn about cells?
2. Explain in your own words what a theory is?
3. Although humans and trees are both living things made of cells
they are obviously different, what makes us different from trees?