DIY Chloroplast Model (Cross-Section)
Materials:
• Styrofoam Cube/Semi-Sphere
• Green/Light Green Paint
• Modelling Clay
• Super Glue
Procedure:
• Paint the outside of the other half of the styrofoam egg green.
This will represent the outer membrane of the chloroplast.
•
Paint the face of the egg using a light green craft paint. This
will represent the inner membrane of the chloroplast.
•
Create quarter-sized "thylakoids" by rolling balls of modeling
clay and flattening them until they are the size of a quarter.
Stack these thylakoids to create granum. Make about three
granum.
•
Super glue these granum to the inner membrane portion of the
egg so that each thylakoid is attached to the inner membrane
surface in their stack.
•
Create strands of modeling clay, about 1/5 of an inch wide (1/2
cm), and super glue them to the styrofoam. These strands need
to connect the granum, which will represent a system of
tubules.
Chloroplast:
Main Features:
•
Stroma
​
​
​The connective tissue in which a
glandular or other epithelium is
​
​
​embedded. The large interior space of a
chloroplast, containing
​
​
​
​enzymes that
incorporate CO into sugars.
2
• Grana/Granum
​
​Stacks of Thylakoid
• Thylakoid
​
​Flattened sac of membrane in a
chloroplast that contains
​
​
​
​chlorophyll
and other pigments and carries out the light-trapping
​
​
​reactions of photosynthesis. Stacks of
thylakoids form the grana of
​
​
​chloroplasts.