Resin Cells: Adding the “A” in STEAM

One of the benefits of being a part of so many FaceBook teacher groups is the ideas that I see as teachers post. One of the pictures I saw last year was of cell models made with resin. They looked awesome. 

For the last two years in my Honors Biology class, we've done organelle speed dating to introduce all of the organelles. The second year, I had a very quiet class and they just didn't get into it like the class the year before.  I felt like trying something new and I enjoy crafty activities, so decided to give resin a try. 

In my research into resin, I saw lots of examples of flowers in resin. For my first trail with resin, I had pressed several of my hydrangea petals and some small tips of ferns growing on the side of my garage. I loved the results. Then I tried making a cell. I made the organelles with my kids' oven bake clay and tried to just drop them all into the resin. That was a mistake. I watched all of the organelles sink and cluster at the bottom of the mold. I tried to move them around, but they kept sinking. I thought I'd wait for it to set a little and then move the organelles around. By the time I moved them, the resin was too set and I pretty much made a mess. 

When we did these in class, I gave my students a list of organelles to make (with the clay from home...we have lots!) and as students were crafting them, I kept asking them questions about the functions of the organelles they were making. We talked about the structure of the organelles and how it fit with their function.  I also had to continually remind them to make their organelles smaller...or they would never fit in the mold. 

We baked the clay while we were together in class, but we ran out of time to pour the resin together. I worked on it while I had a study hall in my classroom, which was handy because one of the students in my study hall volunteered to do the resin stirring for me. I tried to just fill the molds about one third full, but it was closer to half.  I put a few of the students' organelles in, which still sunk to the bottom. I really need to set a timer, pour even less resin in add a couple of organelles, then more resin and more organelles. They still turned out better than my first sample though.

One student chose to do a plant cell. 

I certainly think it's worth a try again for next year.

This whole activity was done with just verbal directions to the students, but I did put together a simple list of what organelles I wanted the students to make.