Cellular Biology at the Springfield, MO Discovery Museum

Really cool hands-on model of an animal cell! See the endoplasmic reticulum?

Really cool hands on model of a plant cell. I'm loving the purple and blue polka-dotted nucleus!

The the CEO asks me, "What is a cell?"

I think to myself, "Wow! After many long winter months of trying all kinds of 'bait' to lure the crew into a terrific adventure in learning, it appears that I may have just gotten a nibble!" Excitedly, I begin reeling!

"Well, everything around us is made up of cells! Cells are teeny building blocks! They are so small that you can not see them unless you look at them through a microscope! But when whole bunches of them are stacked together, they make the things that you can see, like leaves, flowers, and even our bodies!"

"Huh?"

Oh dear! I was reeling too fast!

Slowing down...

"See my skin? It is made up of little particles. They are called cells. And because they make my skin, they are called skin cells...

"I don't get it!"

I begin to realize I need some professional help or my fish... oops, I mean this opportunity to feed my little student's curiosity was going to get away! I scanned the room quickly and honed in on a docent!

"You stay right here and I will be right back... And DON'T lose that thought!"

She was a professional! She knew what she was doing! And before I knew it, all of the kids were donning lab gear!
The crew followed her directions to a 'T' and without any hesitation. I wish I knew how she got them to do that because whenever I tell them to do something it requires super-human strength to get these guys to even make their beds... I'm getting off topic... but I'm still really impressed... How'd she do that?

She is really cute. Hmmm... is 'cuteness' a factor in whether or not one chooses to follow directions?

After they followed her directions, they each ended up with a prepared slide that had their very own cheek cells on it!

After putting it into the microscope and magnifying three different times, here is what they saw! Amazingly, the CEO 'got it.' Now, he not only knows what a cell is, but he managed to hit every microscope display in that museum after this lab experience and identified every last nucleus he managed to see!Then, with all of the enthusiasm he could muster he declared

he wants to be a scientist!