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How to Make a Cell Model With JELL-O

Constructing cell models is a project often encountered in a physical science lab for junior high or high school age students. Use Jell-O to make your cell model along with other edible items so you can devour your project after presenting it. Choose your favorite flavor of Jell-O but consider that darker gelatins may be too dark to distinguish the organelles of the cell. Form either an animal or plant cell using this material for an educational as well as tasty science project.

Things You'll Need

8-inch square plastic container
Plastic wrap
6 oz. Jell-O, light color
Medium size bowl
Fresh whole peach
Knife
4 green grapes
3 yogurt-covered raisins
5 round chocolate-coated round candies
Ground black pepper
4 orange candy
Sour gummy worm
Gummy worm
Old fashioned hard ribbon candy
Gumdrop

Instructions

- 1
  Line an 8-inch-square plastic container with plastic wrap. Leave the plastic wrap extended over each side of the container at least 1 inch.
- 2
  Mix 6 oz. of light colored Jell-O in a medium-size bowl according to the directions on the packaging. Pour the liquid into the plastic wrap-lined container. Refrigerate the Jell-O for half of the recommended time of the package instructions; you do not want the Jell-O completely firm, or it will crack when you add the organelles.
- 3
  Cut a peach in half. Press the half with the pit intact into the center of the Jell-O with the pit facing up and so the peach is partially emerging from the Jell-O; the peach pit is the nucleolus, and the surrounding peach is the nucleus.
- 4
  Push four green grapes around the perimeter of the peach to symbolize the chloroplasts, if you are making a plant cell.
- 5
  Insert three yogurt-coated raisins into the Jell-O around the perimeter of the peach for the vacuoles. Add five chocolate-coated round candies in between the vacuoles in the Jell-O to represent the lysosomes.
- 6
  Sprinkle a pinch of ground black pepper onto the Jell-O in three distinct piles randomly across the surface to indicate ribosomes. Bend a sour gummy worm into a loop and place it next to the peach in the Jell-O for the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Twist a regular gummy worm in a knot and press it in the Jell-O to the outer edge of the sour gummy worm; this is the smooth endoplasmic reticulum.
- 7
  Place a piece of old-fashioned hard ribbon candy in the Jell-O on the opposite side of the peach as the ERs are located to represent the Golgi apparatus. Insert one small gumdrop next to the peach in between the Golgi apparatus and the ERs for the centrosome.
- 8
  Return the Jell-O to the refrigerator to allow it to set completely. Remove the firm Jell-O for presenting by lifting the plastic wrap out of the container, and leave the plastic on the cell model to represent the cell membrane if you are making an animal cell. Present the cell model in the plastic container if you are making a plant cell; the plastic container is representative of the cell wall.

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