On Task
_______
100% Effort _______
Pen/Pencil
Cell Biologist: _________________________________ Class: 8__ Date: ______________
On time
_______
Mrs. Bouchard – 8th Grade Science
Academic
Language _______
Work Hard. Get Smart.
Single-Celled Organisms
Total:
/4
1. You can tell an organism is a single-celled organism by:
•
Seeing if it has only one ____________, which means there’s just one ________.
•
Seeing if it has an _____________________________________________
(for example, __________________) instead of legs, fins or wings.
2. While humans have a mouth to eat food, single-celled creatures can use:
•
•
______________________________________ particles and trap them inside the cell.
•
_______________________________ toward an “oral groove,” which is like a mouth.
•
__________________ to capture sunlight to ____________________, just like plants!
Single-celled organisms often use the same organelle to __________________________!
Euglena
Paramecium
Work Hard. Get Smart.
Below are two single-celled organisms.
Amoeba
Chlamydomas
1. What is one way you can tell these are single-celled organisms?
HINT: One of the labeled organelles should have tipped you off.
___________________________________________________________________________
2. What is another way you can tell these are both single-celled organisms?
HINT: One of the labeled organelles should have tipped you off.
___________________________________________________________________________
3. Uh-oh. Neither of the two organisms above has a brain. However, they get along just fine.
What organelle controls these cells, just like a brain controls the body? __________________
4. Now, let’s say you wanted to move to the refrigerator for a snack. Which organelle of the
Amoeba is going to help it move to the refrigerator? _______________________________
5. If the Chlamydomas on the right wanted to move to the refrigerator, it would have to move
differently. Which organelle would it use? __________________________
6. When you get to the refrigerator, you use your hands to prepare food, and your mouth to eat
it. Which organelle allows the Chlamydomas to make its own food? ____________________
7. The Amoeba uses a different organelle to act as its hands and mouth to eat food. Which
organelle is that? HINT: It also uses this organelle to move. ____________________________
2
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WARNING: The answers
to the questions below
might not be in the
picture to the left.
8.If you pulled out some carrots and started chewing, your teeth would break the carrots down
into smaller pieces. The Amoeba above doesn’t have teeth, so what does it use to break food
down into smaller pieces? Here’s a hint: It also helps the Amoeba recycle old cell parts.
_______________________________
9.Once the Amoeba has used it’s “teeth” to break down the carrots, how is it going to turn those
carrots from food into energy? Which organelle should it use?
_______________________________
10.Uh-oh. As you chewed, a sharp piece of carrot cut your tongue, and you see your blood.
Blood fills your body. What fills the Amoeba, instead of blood?
_______________________________
11.Once you eat the carrots, they get broken down into sugar, vitamins and minerals. Those
materials go in your blood, which gets carried through your veins all over your body. The
Amoeba doesn’t have veins, What does it have to transport materials all over its cell?
________________________________
12.If your body can’t use those materials from the carrots, like extra sugar and vitamins, they get
stored in your fat cells. However, the Amoeba doesn’t have fat cells. How is he going to store
extra food? Which organelle will he use?
________________________________
13.Uh-oh. While you’re eating, some germs try to infect you with a disease. Fortunately, your
skin keeps the bad stuff out. What organelle allows the Amoeba to decide what comes in and
what stays out, and keeps the bad stuff outside the organism?
________________________________
Raise Your Hand for Answer Key #1!
3
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Paramecium
14. Your brother sees you leaving the kitchen, and decides he wants some carrots, too.
If your brother was a Paramecium, the one-celled organism you see above, what organelle
would you use to move to the refrigerator?
_______________________________
15. Your brother can use his hands and mouth to look for carrots, and then eat carrots.
Sadly, Mr. Paramecium doesn’t have these, and he doesn’t have pseudopods or a chloroplast,
either. How does the Paramecium get its food? HINT: It also uses this organelle to move.
___________________________________________________________________________
16. Now, once you and your brother have eaten all of that food, your bodies will make loads of
useful proteins. Some proteins help your hair grow strong; others help you grow your
muscles. Which organelle will help both your cells and the Paramecium’s cells make protein?
_______________________________
17. Once your cells make proteins, they package them up, and send them to all over your body.
You might be bigger than Mr. Paramecium, but he can do that, too. Which organelle will help
both your cells and the Paramecium package proteins and send them outside the cell?
_______________________________
18. Your brother is munching on a carrot and looking into the fridge for his next victim. While he
does that, his cells are turning the carrot into energy! Which organelle is doing this?
_______________________________
19. Your brother decides not to eat more after all. There’s some cake that looks good, but he
decides to save it for later, and puts it back. Since the Paramecium doesn’t have a fridge, he
has to store any food he wants later within his cell. Which organelle would he use to do that?
______________________________
4
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Astasia
20. We’ve seen at this point that one-celled organisms do just fine, even with just one cell!
For example, we need our big legs to move. But one-celled organisms have a few different
“legs” of their own.
How do the Amoeba and the Astasia above move differently?
You must use TWO words labeled on the pictures above.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
21. One-celled creatures don’t just move differently. They get their food differently, too.
Some get their food and eat it, like we do with our mouths and hands. Others can make it
themselves.
How do the Amoeba and the Astasia get their food differently?
You must use TWO words labeled on the pictures above.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
You’re Done!
Raise Your Hand for Answer Key #2!
5
Work Hard. Get Smart.
Humans and Amoebas – You Can Barely Tell The Difference!
Your 3rd grade neighbor is looking under his microscope, and sees the organism below.
He shouts, “Gross!” You let him know, however, that the Amoeba is actually a lot like him. Your
neighbor shouts, “No way – that can’t be true!” Time to prove him wrong … Again 
DIRECTIONS: Fill in the blanks to explain to the 3rd grader how he is like an amoeba.
WORD BANK: pseudopods, pseudopods (yes, it’s supposed to be here twice),
endoplasmic reticulum, lysosome, cell membrane, vacuole, nucleus
1. Just like the 3rd grader has legs, the amoeba has _______________________ to help it move.
2. Just like the 3rd grader has skin to protect his body and keep bad stuff out, the amoeba has a
_________________________ to protect itself from bad things outside.
3. Just like the 3rd grader has a mouth to eat his food, the amoeba has ____________________
to surround and take in food.
4. Just like the 3rd grader has fat in his body to store extra food and calories that can be used
later, the amoeba has a ___________________ to store food and water.
5. Just like the 3rd grader can make decisions and think (a little, anyway), the amoeba uses his
___________________ to think and make decisions.
6. Just like the 3rd grader has veins running through his body to carry nutrients and oxygen to his
muscles, the amoeba has an __________________________ to transport materials.
7. Just like the 3rd grader has teeth to break down food into smaller pieces, the amoeba has a
_____________________ to break down food and old cell parts.
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