Plant vs. Animal Cells: Onion, Cheek & Leaf Lab

An online microscope lab for middle school science on StudyScope. Students work through 3 real prepared microscope slides in order: Onion Epidermis (Whole Mount), Human Cheek Cells (Whole Mount), and Lower Epidermis of Tradescantia reflexa Leaf (Whole Mount).

Students compare plant and animal cells on three classic slides: onion skin, cheek cells, and the skin from the underside of a leaf. For each one, they describe the cells first, then check their ideas against labeled parts: the cell wall, the nucleus, the cell membrane, and guard cells. You drive the slides; students follow on their own screens and can pan and zoom. Have students sketch each kind of cell side by side in a notebook and keep a two-column table: "Plant cells" and "Animal cells." About 35 minutes.

Grade level
Middle school
Time
35 minutes
Subject
Cell Biology
Slides
3
NGSS
MS-LS1-1, MS-LS1-2

NGSS alignment

Lab steps

  1. Plant cells: onion skin

    Slide: Onion Epidermis (Whole Mount)

    • This is a thin layer of skin peeled from an onion and stained so the cells show up. Before zooming in, look at the whole piece. Describe the pattern you see. What does it remind you of?
    • Each long shape is one cell. The dark outline around each one is the cell wall, a stiff layer that gives a plant cell its shape. Sketch three or four cells. Are their shapes regular or uneven? Do they leave gaps between them?
    • Check the labels. One whole cell is boxed, with its cell wall all the way around. In another cell, the small dark oval is the nucleus, which controls the cell. Most of the clear space inside each cell is a large vacuole that stores water. Add the cell wall, nucleus, and vacuole to your sketch.

  2. Animal cells: cheek cells

    Slide: Human Cheek Cells (Whole Mount)

    • Now animal cells: these came from the inside of a person's cheek. Look at the pink shapes spread across the slide. How are their shapes different from the onion cells? Are they lined up in rows?
    • Zoom in on a single cell. Find the small, darker dot near its middle. Then trace the cell's edge with your eyes. Do you see a thick outline like the onion's cell wall? What might the edge be made of instead?
    • Check the labels. The dot is the nucleus. The edge is the cell membrane, a thin, flexible layer. Animal cells have no cell wall, which is why these cells are flat, uneven, and sometimes folded. Sketch one cheek cell next to your onion cells.

  3. Plant cells with a job: leaf skin

    Slide: Lower Epidermis of Tradescantia reflexa Leaf (Whole Mount)

    • One more plant: the skin from the underside of a leaf. Look at the whole piece. The cells line up in rows like the onion's. What else do you notice scattered across the surface?
    • Zoom in. Most cells have a dark, round dot inside. Use what you saw in the onion and cheek cells to name it. Now find the small pair of curved cells around a slit in the middle. How are they different from the cells around them?
    • Check the labels. The two curved guard cells open and close the pore, called a stoma, so the leaf can take in air and let out water vapor. Like every plant cell, they have a cell wall. Finish your table: list the parts plant and animal cells share, and the parts only plant cells have.
    • Look back at all three slides. Write one sentence explaining how a cell wall changes the shape of a cell. Plants have no bones. How might stiff cell walls help a plant stand up?

Slides used in this lab

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