Cell size has profound effects on biological function, influencing a wide range of processes, including biosynthetic capacity, metabolism, and nutrient uptake. As a result, size is typically maintained within a narrow, population-specific range through size control mechanisms, which are an active area of study.
Our Year 11 Biology students have been learning about cell shape and why cells are the shape they are. To help why animal cells are circular and not square, students had a go and blowing square bubbles!
Making good use of the lab, students also learned about variations in cell size.
In a second experiment, they cut beetroot into three different sized cubes and left them in bleach. They then cut open the cubes to see how far the bleach had spread, to show how the size of the cell is important as it allows material in and out of the cell.
