Name Gradel Section Date:

CELL THEORY: RATS CAME FROM STRAW?!

Peter, who lived 200 years ago, had a house with no rats in it. One day, his wife heard some scurrying around
in his straw roof. He went up and guess what he found? A rafs nest. Peter was really srnart - - where did he
think the new rats came from?

This idea is called

200 years ago, people believed that Spontaneous Generation
part of the straw roof somehow
turned into rats. r*.

What do you think of this idea?

Why do you think that? this pro-
cess to explain the origin of life.

We're all really smart, but its not like we're the smartest people in the world. We all know that it takes a rnom-
ma rat and daddy rat to make some baby rats.

This is because we understand something called the cell theory, because cell theorv is just part of our culture
now. lf s something a lot of our behaviors and other ideas are based on.

THE CELLTHEORY

1. All tiving organisms are composed of one or more cells.

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2. The cell is theftasic unit of ft in ail livingthings.

3. All cells come from pre-existing cells. Virchow

1.Which two parts of the cell theo-
ry could you use to explain to Pe-
ter why some of his straw roof did-
n't turn into a rat?
2.What do we mean when we say
'The cell is the smallest unit of life'?
Explain as if you were talking to Pe-
ter, who has no idea about cells.
3.How do we all know about
this, but Peter didn't? What
tools do we have today that Pe-
tefs world, 200 years ago, did-
n't have?

Your job is to figure out how we, as a society, got from a world where people believed straw could

become rats. This wasn't a simple process, nor was it overnight.