A Cell is a building block of life

There is a great variety of living things on our planet. Living material is called protoplasm that is not a chemical compound but a complex mixture varying in different organs and organisms. The amazing fact is that apart from viruses all living matter is made up from the same building blocks called cells. This was discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665 (Studying a piece of cork under a microscope he saw hundreds of little boxes).

A cell is a smallest unit of life. Sometimes one cell is one being as for Paramecium, a  unicellular that is  widespread in marine, brackish and freshwater environments.  Sometimes thousand trillions cells combine to form one organism that behaves as one unit.  And when a cell has grown to a characteristic size it divides and forms two cells. For a one-celled organism it is a process of reproduction. And for a multicellular copying of cells is only growth of organism and the process of reproduction is much more complex and is sexual or asexual.

In a multicellular organism large number of cells of the same type group to form tissue; tissues form organs. Thus different cells have different structure and are specialized to do a particular job they all have certain features in common. Cell contains organic molecules made mainly of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. Substances constantly get into a cell and chemical processes take place.

Cells differ in shape and size. Different structures have animal and plant cells. Follow the link below to know more about an animal cell:

Cells: the building blocks of life

Try to produce your glog about a plant cell. Good luck!

Words to know:
be made up from , be specialized,  behave, carbon , cells, chemical, chemical compound, combine, contain, copy, differ, discover, divide, environment, Eukaryote, feature; certain features, function, get into, hydrogen, in common/in general, organic, inorganic, living material/matter, living thing/being/organism, membrane , mixture; complex mixture, multicellular, nitrogen, nucleus, organelle , oxygen, particular, Prokaryotes,  protein, reproduction, sexual, asexual, shape, size, storage , substance, take place, the same /alike, tissue, under a microscope,  unicellular/one-celled organism, unit, variety, vary, widespread.

Part animal, part plant?

We are used to distinguish all living things on our planet into two groups - animals or plants. how do you think is there any living being that is partly animal partly plant?

Follow the link.

What is your opinion is this animal partly a plant?

Why is chocolate bad for animals?

Click here to read about

Animal life: Sharks appear dead when upside down

Discover how these fearsome creatures are immobilised when flipped over

Many animals are capable of entering a trance-like state called tonic immobility whereby they appear dead to their surroundings. In the case of sharks it has been observed on many different species such as the lemon shark, reef shark and tiger sharks upon simply placing them upside down.

During tonic immobility the dorsal fin becomes straightened and the breathing and muscle contractions become more relaxed. It is such a reliable behaviour in certain sharks that it is used as a type of anaesthesia before minor surgery.

Some killer whales have learned to take advantage of this by using their tails to create currents in the water that can turn a shark over in order to eat it. The reason this happens to sharks is unclear, but it can be argued that tonic immobility has a role to play in survival allowing the shark to blend into the surroundings by being completely motionless, but in this case it’s obviously a disadvantage for the shark.

It has also been speculated that it may be something to do with the mating ritual of certain shark species as in some cases it can be induced by massage.

 From: www.animalanswers.co.uk 

Words: tonic immobility мнимая смерть, dorsal fin спинной плавник, current течение, to take advantage  извлекать выгоду

Building blocks of life: a plant cell

I liked a glog created by Mesedu. What do  you think about it?

Follow the link: Plant Cell

Man and Nature

The whole time man is on this planet he changes the habitat to make his living here more comfortable. This animation is about his influence on the environment and a possible result of it.

It's a depressive movie, isn't it? Does it reflect the real state of things? Is mankind so mortal for living organisms and non-living things?
Do you agree with the thought of Canadian poet Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) "To our housebred sentiment, it seems a pathetic thing that every wild creature should die a violent death. But, after all, what better fate could befall it than to render its life up for the preservation of other life … One may say, without being misanthropic, that the greatest joy in nature is the absence of man"?

The Earth

As some students begin studying our planet I suppose this link will be very helpful for them:
ecoenglish-1.blogspot.ru

Extra English: Tarantula

Tarantula is a very large and hairy spider. 

The majority of is afraid of it because of its appearance thus it is not dangerous to humans as a rule. I am sure you guess who is called as a tarantula in the video. Can you explain why Bridgit does it?

Ecological problems

For the 2nd year students

There is a unit for self studying for the 2nd year students. Please follow the link: http://romashka.edu.glogster.com/english-lesson-ecological-problems/

Try to prepare your own glog, chose any ecological problem of mankind u wish.
If you have problems or questions plese write below