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9th grade · Science · Unit 1 of 14

Cell Types, Transport & Specialization

Prokaryotes and eukaryotes, moving molecules across membranes, and how cells specialize.

What your child practices

Practices comparing prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, how cells keep homeostasis by moving molecules (diffusion, osmosis, active transport), how cells specialize through differentiation, and how a disrupted cell cycle can lead to cancer.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: BIO.1; BIO.3; BIO.4 · cell structures and their functions, the cell cycle, and active and passive transport

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Prokaryotic cells (bacteria) have no nucleus; eukaryotic cells do.
  2. Diffusion moves molecules from high to low concentration. Osmosis is water doing this. Active transport uses energy to go the other way.
  3. Homeostasis keeps internal conditions stable. Cells specialize through differentiation.

Example: A red blood cell is placed in pure water. What happens? Water is more concentrated outside the cell. Water moves in by osmosis. Answer: it swells and may burst

Cell Types, Transport & Specialization in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 1 of 14 in 9th grade Science, before Biomolecules & Enzymes.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Wilted lettuce firms up in fresh water because of…

    • photosynthesis
    • active transport
    • osmosis
    • mitosis

  2. Question 2

    A red blood cell in very salty water will…

    • swell and burst
    • stay the same
    • shrink as water leaves
    • divide

  3. Question 3

    In a prokaryote, DNA is found in the…

    • vacuole
    • cytoplasm, in a region called the nucleoid
    • mitochondria
    • nucleus

  4. Question 4

    Diffusion is movement of molecules from…

    • only into the nucleus
    • low to high concentration
    • high concentration to low concentration
    • only with ATP

  5. Question 5

    Osmosis is the diffusion of…

    • sugar using energy
    • proteins into the nucleus
    • DNA
    • water across a membrane

  6. Question 6

    Why can't large cells survive well?

    • They have too much DNA
    • Their surface area is too small for their volume to exchange materials
    • They have no membrane
    • They are prokaryotic

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