Introduction to Cell Anatomy: Cell Organelles

Memorizing Songs

Duration: 15 min

This is a great activity for introducing cell anatomy to students. Memorization is one of the hardest things a student can do and can become really frustrating. But for some reason the brain is quite adept at quickly memorizing words put into verse with a melody, aka music!

This is the song I wrote (re-wrote) to help students memorize the names and basic function of the major cell organelles.

Cell Organelles

Hello there, my DNA
Inside the nucleus, you are contained
You send signals to the Ribosome
Which makes up proteins, encoded by genes

Contained in membranes, they’re your cell personnel
They work as a team to serve the cell well,
You gotta love’em they’re your cell organelles

Proteins are sent via vesicles
In and out, and all around the cell
Vesicles sent by the Rough ER
Go down the smooth, to the Golgi Body

Contained in membranes, they’re your cell personnel
They work as a team to serve the cell well,
You gotta love ’em they’re your cell organelles

Chloroplasts make sugars in plants,
and the Mitochondria is the power plant
The Cytoskeleton gives it its shape,
while the cytoplasm fills it up like a grape

Contained in membranes, they’re your cell personnel
They work as a team to serve the cell well,
You gotta love ’em they’re your cell organelles

Re-writing lyrics

Next, I used half sheets containing two lines of lyrics, and distributed them to pairs of students. Students worked together to re write their two lyrics into their own words.

When everyone was finished we compiled everyone’s answer into a word document. One column had the lyrics to the song, and one column had the student-friendly translation. Copies were then given to each student.

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Written by Rob Nelson

Rob is an ecologist from the University of Hawaii. He is the co-creator and director of Untamed Science. His goal is to create videos and content that are entertaining, accurate, and educational. When he's not making science content, he races whitewater kayaks and works on Stone Age Man.

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