Hi Bertrand,

what I realized over time in teaching is that visualization and a little simplification are the key to catch the attention of your young audience. How you do this is a matter of what you prefer. But you should stick to the picture you choose!

When my dad aks me about my work (okay he is not 15-17, but also not a scientist) I like to use the picture of a factory with assembly chains etc.. A lot of things can be adapted with this. Vesicular transport are carts the transport the produced goods/machines from the assembly site (ER for membrane proteins) to the modification/"painting" site, the Golgi. The TGN/EE is then delivering the goods to their destination, like an internal post system and so on. The blueprints for the machines are of course stored in the nucleus :-).

You could also add things like fluorescent proteins that are just lamps attached to the goods to be monitored. Maybe it is to simple for your purpose, but one point should be made clear to every audience: Show them your curiosity and why the science you do is so exciting. And there many nice pictures and videos of plant cells and their orgenelles etc. out there you should definitely use to catch the students eyes.

Combine the science with things they already know.

Hope this helps a little...

Hi Bertrand,

what I realized over time in teaching is that visualization and a little simplification are the key to catch the attention of your young audience. How you do this is a matter of what you prefer. But you should stick to the picture you choose!

When my dad aks me about my work (okay he is not 15-17, but also not a scientist) I like to use the picture of a factory with assembly chains etc.. A lot of things can be adapted with this. Vesicular transport are carts the transport the produced goods/machines from the assembly site (ER for membrane proteins) to the modification/"painting" site, the Golgi. The TGN/EE is then delivering the goods to their destination, like an internal post system and so on. The blueprints for the machines are of course stored in the nucleus :-).

You could also add things like fluorescent proteins that are just lamps attached to the goods to be monitored. Maybe it is to simple for your purpose, but one point should be made clear to every audience: Show them your curiosity and why the science you do is so exciting. And there many nice pictures and videos of plant cells and their orgenelles etc. out there you should definitely use to catch the students eyes.

Combine the science with things they already know.

Hope this helps a little...

Hi Bertrand,

I teach 1st semester medical students on this subject and many of them have had no prior exposure to biology and the conecpt of a cell. And since some of our students are now indeed 16-17yr old coming straight out of school, the following might be helpful.

As Falco points out - visualization is key. Keeping it simple also helps, yet at the same time, you do want to make your students aware of the incredible complexity of the inner works of a cell. So after teaching the general concept of a cell in a regular "2D" approach (meaning flat on paper), you may want to enhance the experience of by offering a tour through a cell in movie format.

I found a video on youtube that I use in parts during my lecture, and it really gets a lot of praise from the students. This video was produced by Harvard University for their educational website (BioVisions). Here is a link to the full version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrXykvorybo

And here is the link to BioVisions, where you will find a number of great clips and animations on specific cell organelles etc.: http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/

Hope this helps, and good luck!

This is a very good addition Maren, I like this video a lot! First saw it during my Bachelor time. Although it is not in particular for plant sciences, it still is the best visualization around.

Why don't we collect here a few links that can help all of us for teaching?

This here is the collection of the BioVisions "Inner Life Series":

http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/innerlifeseries.html

This here is a FREE (!) library of scientific illustrations that you can download and use as you wish. I know these guys since they started this project where you had to pay for a membrship, but it became free for all this year. Really great quality and they have a lot of stuff! Furthermore, you can suggest illustrations they should produce for the next week (in a ranking). I like this site a lot and you can assemble a plant cell!

http://www.somersault1824.com/

This here is a well known site for images from all kingdoms:

http://www.cellimagelibrary.org/home

Have a look and if you know other helpful sites, post them here. It might improve the teaching for everyone of us!

Good idea Falco.

For my histology classes, this is my favorite Neurocytology atlas, ultrastructure and good image quality. It is probably too detailed for school students, but great for university level teching.

http://synapses.clm.utexas.edu/atlas/contents.stm