Students in science are creating analogies to model how a cell works. By comparing the cell to a system they know, such as a city, school, or sports team, they explain how each part functions and how the parts communicate to keep the whole system running. The project also gives students the chance to be highly creative. This year, their ideas have ranged from "Gilmore Girls," to bakeries, to the world of "Gravity Falls," a rocket blueprint design, and even a comparison of the cell to the internal components of a cell phone, demonstrating how they can connect science to their own passions and imaginations.

Partners Emily E. and Ayla H. emphasized the prevalence of cell-like components and structures found throughout nature with their bakery project, where various elements of the bakery, such as the chef, symbolize different parts of a cell. "I learned that you can find an analogy of cells anywhere you look in nature,” said Emily.

“We decided to do a bakery for our project because there are so many different things that can resemble different parts of a cell. For example, the chef acts as the nucleolus because they help to make the ribosomes, which in turn help make the proteins—like the baked goods,” said Ayla.

Continuing the theme that cell structures can be found throughout the world, partners Max P. and Xander G. created a project inspired by squirrels water-skiing (a popular online trend) to humorously compare it to a cell. They built a model, starting with the water and then constructing the boat, engine, squirrel, and skis. They found that parts of the boat and a turtle in the model functioned similarly to parts in a cell. The project involved labeling all components to illustrate the comparison.

Returning to food-related analogies, partners Elliana C. and Chiara G. created a candy bank model where Twizzlers represented the cell membrane, ribosomes were workers, the smooth endoplasmic reticulum acted as ATMs, vacuoles were money slots, the nucleus served as a vault, chloroplasts were solar panels, Golgi bodies were money trucks, lysosomes were dumpsters, and Sour Patch Kids stood in for various cellular components. One of their challenges was difficulty with hot glue that doesn't adhere well to candy!

These inventive models show that when students work together, the synergy of their partnership can make even the most fundamental concepts of science engaging and unforgettable.