Ryan Augustine

Mrs. Steininger

Honors Biology10

March 19, 2018

Magic School Bus Story

One day I walked into Biology, I thought to myself, “Dang, hope we watch a video

today.” To my utmost surprise when I turned the knob and walked into biology class there was a

huge yellow school bus filling up the whole classroom. Mrs. Steininger was sitting in the bus

with Richard on her arm telling us, “C’mon guys, you guys are already behind the other classes,

we need to get a move on.” Naturally we followed her directions and got into the bus. As we

took a seat Hans asked, “Mrs. Steininger how did you fit a bus into the classroom and why are

we on it?” Mrs. Steininger replied, “I shrunk the bus down and drove it into the building, up the

elevator, and into the room, then I put it back to normal size. Today class we will be shrinking

down to the size smaller then a cell and we are going to go get a close-up view of an animal cell

and all of its organelles.” After she was done talking, Mrs. Steininger flicked a switch and we

shrunk down faster than a plant can complete photosynthesis. After we were done shrinking Mrs.

Steininger put the bus into first gear and cooked it to the animal cell sitting right in front of us.

As we inched toward the cell Mrs. Steininger said, “The layer that is surrounding the plant cell is

called a cell membrane, it’s a lipid bilayer. It protects and determines what goes in and out of the

cell… Hopefully it will let us pass through.” We reached the cell and passed right through the

cell membrane like a hot knife cutting through butter. As soon as we entered the cell Mrs.

Steininger said, “The jelly like substance the bus is sitting in right now is called the cytoplasm.”
Hans raised his hand and asked, “What is the web like thing all over the cell?” Nug said, “Its

called the Cytoskeleton, it proetects the cell from collapsing and holds organelles in place.” Mrs.

Steininger added, “It’s also acts as a roadway, whcich is what we will be using it for today.” Mrs.

Steininger then asked, “Hans here is a question I want you to answer for me. What is that

organelle right there ahead of us?” Hans took a long hard look and said, “That is the nucleus, it

contains the DNA, which gives the directions on how to make proteins. Also found in the

nucleus is the nucleolus, which create ribosomes.” Right after Hans was done talking Tony

roared, “That’s a ticket!” Mrs. Steininger ripped off not one, but two tickets and gave them to

Hans because she was so impressed with his answer. Mrs. Steininger then steered the bus onto

the cytoskeleton and we were off. When went to get a closer look at the nucleus Joe noticed

something on the other side of it. Joe said, “It kind of looks like a maze and there is two of them.

There is a smooth one and a rough one.” Mrs. Steininger then said, “Great eye Joe, that is the

rough endoplasmic reticulum and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum. The rough E.R. is the one

closer to the nucleus and looks bump because it has ribosomes in it. The job of the rough E.R, is

to package and send proteins to the Golgi Apparatus. Does anyone want to take a guess at what

the smooth E.R. does?” Gracie piped up and said, “The smooth E.R. breaks down toxic materials

in the cell and makes, packages, and send lipids to the Golgi Apparatus.” Mrs. Steininger replied,

“Perfect Gracie, now for a ticket what is the job of the ribosomes and where else can you find

them in a cell?” Gracie then said, “Ribosomes are the smallest organelles in the cell, it has no

membrane, and its job is to assemble proteins.” Hans added, “They are located all over the cell

and do not have a membrane.” Mrs. Steininger gave both of them tickets and told them great job.

Suddenly we saw a giant sack barreling towards us. The sack had arms coming out of the bottom

of it, its arms were walking it along the cytoskeleton. In an instant Mrs. Steininger backed the
bus up and moved off to the side. She waited for the sac like structure to pass then she followed

it. As we were following it she said, “This is a vesicle, the job of it is to store and move materials

out of the cell and around the cell. I am hoping that it is going to the Golgi Apparatus so we can

get look at it.” That’s exactly what happened, we followed it and it went straight into the Golgi

Apparatus. The Golgi Apparatus is the post office of the cell. It modifies, sorts, and send lipids

and proteins that come in to their final destination in another vesicle. Next, we went to a vacuole,

but on the way we were lucky enough to spot a lysosome. Mrs. Steininger said, “Lysosomes are

full of digestive enzymes. They are basically the trash collectors of the cell.” When we arrived at

the vacuole Mrs. Steininger asked, “What is the purpose of a vacuole?” Annabelle raised her

hand and said, “As you can see it looks like a big sack and it’s a storage unit for the cell. It holds

water, salt, and proteins.” Mrs. Steininger handed her a ticket, then put the bus into drive and

went to our last destination. The last organelle we saw was the mitochondria. Since we were

running out of time in the class we only got to take a quick look and Mrs. Steininger explained

the job of the mitochondria quickly, “The mitochondria turns our sugar into energy, it actually

has not one but two membranes, and it even holds its own DNA.” After we saw the mitochondria

we stayed on the cytoskeleton and made our way back to the area where we entered the cell

membrane. We went out of the cell membrane the same way we got in, a soon as we got out we

hear a loud ring… It was the bell. Mrs. Steininger flicked the same switch she used to shrink us

the other way and in an instant we returned to normal size. Before we even had a chance to

process everything that happened we had to grab our backpacks and go to fifth period. The End.