Optional Activities
- Multicellular Team Roleplay: Assign each family member a “cell type” muscle cell, nerve cell, skin cell. Try to do a task (carry something across the room) with only each person doing their specific job. How does specialization help? What happens if one cell “fails”?
- Volvox Video Investigation: Search YouTube for “Volvox under microscope.” Volvox is a living colony organism, single-celled algae that live together in a rotating sphere. It’s one of the best living examples of the transition from unicellular to multicellular life. Watch and write 3 observations.
- Design an Ediacaran Creature: Look up Dickinsonia, Charnia, and Spriggina. Then design your own Ediacaran creature: soft-bodied, ocean-dwelling, and either radially or bilaterally symmetrical. Name it using scientific naming conventions (genus + species) and write a brief natural history entry.
- Dissect an Earth Worm: To explore more about the anatomy of soft bodied invertebrate, explore the insides of an Earth Worm. Biology Corner has resources. For a video walk through look here. Orgami organelles does have a paid paper model you can make here.