How to Make an Edible Gelatin Animal Cell

Make an animal cell with yellow gelatin.

Animal cells seem just as complex as human cells, especially when reading about animals cells from a book. Put your knowledge of animal cells on display by creating an edible gelatin animal cell at home. Add a mixture of candy and fruits into the animal cell to representing each element inside the animal cell. After learning and studying each component of the animal cell, share the cell with others after dinner, or as a lunchtime treat.

Things You'll Need

• 1 packet yellow gelatin
• Two 2-quart saucepans
• Plastic cooking spoon
• 1 gallon storage bag
• Metal tongs
• 1/2 plum with pit
• 1 red sour belt candy
• 4 red coated hard candy
• 1 orange gumball
• Pink candy sprinkles
• 4 blueberries
• 1 plain gummy worm
• 1 sugar coated gummy worm
• 9 in. dinner plate

Instructions

1. Pour 1 cup of water into a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Slowly add the gelatin powder into the boiling water and stir with a plastic cooking spoon for five minutes, or until the gelatin powder dissolves into the boiling water.

2. Turn the stove off and remove the saucepan. Pour 1 cup of cold water into the saucepan, and stir the cold water into the gelatin water with the plastic spoon. Set aside to cool for five minutes.

3. Place a 1 gallon zip-top storage bag into a separate 2-quart saucepan, and pour the gelatin water into the bag. Zip the top of the bag and place the gelatin bag, while in the saucepan, into the refrigerator for one hour. The zip-top bag serves as the animal cell's membrane.

4. Remove the gelatin filled bag from the refrigerator, and open the zip-top bag. Insert the plum with the pit in the center of the gelatin using the metal tongs. Fold the red sour belt candy with your fingers, and place the belt candy into the bag with the tongs. Set the folded belt candy in the lower right corner of the gelatin filled bag, to represent the Golgi complex.

5. Add the red-coated hard candy pieces near the edge of the gelatin cell to resemble lysosomes, and large raisins around the plum to resemble mitochondrion. Then insert the orange gumball next to plum as well, to represent the centrosome. Insert pink sugar sprinkles, next to the coated hard candy pieces, representing the animal cell's ribosomes.

6. Insert the blueberries throughout the gelatin animal cell, representing the vacuole in the animal cell. Then set the plain and sugar gummy worms next to the plum, to resemble the rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum.

7. Close the zip top bag and place the gelatin cell, inside the saucepan, into the refrigerator for two hours or until fully set. Carefully remove the jell-o filled bag from the saucepan, after the gelatin has fully set, and display the jell-o filled bag on a 9-inch dinner plate.

References

• Enchanted Learning: Jell-o Animal Cell

Resources

• Cells Alive: Cell Models: An Interactive Animation