HIGHWAY TO CELL

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Hi there. It's me, your boss. The head scientist of these parts. But, of course, you already knew that. Listen, I'll cut right to the chase here. You've been given a very dangerous task. The Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic cells have been at war for decades. Thanks to our new shrink ray, you're able to go undercover as a cell and find out how their organelle armies work in order to find a way to stop the war. The lives of many cells are in your hands. I'll be with you on the radio the whole time, but you need to be careful. If the organelles catch onto our plan... it will only make things worse. Take caution on this mission, soldier. We're counting on you!

HIGHWAY TO CELL

The Very Epic RPG Game

HOW TO PLAY:

* Go undercover as an organelle and find out as much info as you can about the cell war.

* Don't let the organelles catch onto your plan!

* Click the speaker icon if you see one to hear a radio message from your boss.

* Stop the war and help the cells make peace.

* Good luck!

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* Welcome! I’m Ricky the Ribosome! Come with me, I’ll show you around!

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* You're in a eukaryotic cell: the best cell there is! I'm so glad you chose to come here instead of going to check out those gross prokaryotic cells. They may seem tougher than us, but that's only because they're meaner. Trust me, you don't want to get involved with them. They're very stubborn-- always feeling like they can do everything on their own. That's why prokaryotes only have one cell in them. Eukaryotes have more than one cell because we like to work together. Oh, which reminds me... let me tell you about the organelles that live in these parts!

( DNA )

( Cytosol )

( Cell membrane )

* Cells have many different organelles, each doing their own special job! For example, we ribosomes make proteins that the cell needs to survive. I don’t like to brag, but we have a pretty important job. There are only four organelles, however, that are common in ALL cells, including prokaryotic cells. Those organelles are ribosomes, cytosol, cell membrane, and DNA. The cytosol is the watery substance that surrounds the cell. It helps materials move around the cell. The cell membrane is the protective covering on the outside of the cell that serves as a kind of moat. It keeps good things in and bad things out. We animal cells don’t have a cell wall like the Prokaryotic cells and plant cells do, but we’re thinking of building one. And, DNA is the genetic blueprint that makes the cell unique. Interesting, huh?

( Carbohydrates )

( Lipids )

( Nucleic Acids )

( Proteins )

* There’s also the four macromolecules that all cells have and need to survive: carbohydrates, which store energy, provide fuel, and build structure in the body; lipids, which store fat and energy; nucleic acids, which store and transfer info, and proteins, which provide transport, structural support, movement, and defense.

* Oh! You wanna know a fun fact I heard the other day? Have you ever wondered where your skin color comes from? Well, you see, I read a book last week about skin, and it was actually quite interesting. There are actually three different layers of your skin: the hypodermis, or the bottom layer, the dermis, the middle layer, and the epidermis, or the topmost layer. In the epidermis, there are these cells called keratinocytes, which form the surface of the skin. At the base of the epidermis, there are cells called melanocytes, which produce melanin. There are three ways that melanin determines your skin color: the total amount of melanin in each melanosome, the type of melanin, and the number of melanosomes in the epidermis. Pretty interesting, don’t you think?

* ( You ask Ricky the Ribosome if he knows anything about plant cells. )

* You want to know about plant cells? Okay! Right now, we’re in an animal cell. But, plant cells are eukaryotic cells, too! They have common organelles just like we do! Some examples of the organelles we share with the plant cells are organelles such as the cytoskeleton, which provides structural support to the cell, smooth and rough ER, which make proteins and lipids, the Golgi apparatus, which is the main postal center for the cell, and the nucleus, the biggest and most important organelle in a cell. That’s another thing that makes eukaryotic cells better: we have a nucleus when the prokaryotic cells don’t. Their DNA just floats around. I don’t understand how they function without one!

* Oh, yeah! One thing that plant cells have that animal cells don’t are chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are like little solar panels that convert light into energy for plants. Some plants, however, do not have chloroplasts. This is because some kinds of plants do not need to perform photosynthesis to function. Most plants are producers, so they make their own food using chloroplasts!