Turning Biology into Art! Check Out What One of Our Student’s Created with Her Tutor!

Aside from just focusing on classwork, our tutors like to get hands-on with their students. Meet Lyndi; she has been working with Maria, a home-schooled senior, for almost a year. The two meet weekly to work on biology.

“We were given free reign to discuss any and all biology-related topics,” Lyndi said. “We’ve discussed very diverse subjects – from cell biology to evolution and stem cell therapies. We often discuss new and exciting developments in several fields of research – such as cancer therapies, gene therapies, or organ printing – and try to delve into the biology behind new discoveries or therapies.”

A few weeks ago, Maria and Lyndi were discussing cell biology when Lyndi got the idea to challenge Maria to making her own model of a cell. The pair talked about all different kinds of cells, from plant cells to various one-celled organisms, Lyndi said. That’s when Maria decided to make a mammalian cell model.

“As we added new components to the cell model, we discussed what the purpose of the component or organelle was and why their functions are important for life to exist,” Lyndi said.

Maria holding her homemade cell model.

The chemistry between Lyndi and Maria is easy to understand. The secret behind their successful lessons all comes down to one important philosophy: explore topics that interest Maria.

“She’s very easy-going and open to suggestions,” Maria said of her tutor. “We don’t have a strict schedule to follow. If there’s a subject I’m interested in learning more about, she’s more than willing to teach me about it.”

—

Learn how Maria and Lyndi created a mammilian cell:

Using white art foam, Maria created the cell membrane, representative of the phospholipid bilayer membrane of a cell.

Colorful pipe cleaners were used to represent integral proteins spanning the cell membrane, that in a real cell, may function as receptors or ion channels. We wrapped the pipe cleaners around a pencil to represent alpha-helices that are created by proteins in a hydrophobic setting, such as the space between the two monolayers of cell membrane.

Maria then used a plastic baggie and filled it with hair gel, dyed blue, to represent the nucleus – or the command center of a cell. Within the baggie, she added a styrofoam ball to represent the nucleolus, a region in the nucleus that contains ribosomal DNA that is important for making ribosomes.

More art foam was used to represent the endoplasmic reticulum, important for lipid biosynthesis and protein synthesis, which surrounds the  nucleus and is studded with ribosomes, little cellular machines made of ribosomal RNA and proteins that make proteins for the cell.

Art foam was also used to make the Golgi apparatus, an organelle that modifies proteins and sends them to their appropriate cellular (or extracellular) location.

We used oval styrofoam shapes, cut in half and colored, to represent mitochondria, which provide the cell with energy.

Using dried glue “balls” from a hot glue gun stuck to toothpicks, Maria made representations of vesicles, little membrane bound “bubbles” that carry cellular products throughout the cell and lysomes – highly acidic organelles that break down cellular waste.