So it was the Science Spectacular on Saturday and it was an amazing – but busy -day. At this point in time I think I should publicly apologise for the numerous children who may have became hyperactive due to the sugary treats we were pedalling. Let’s face it though, the best way to communicate science is through the medium of confectionery.

Some of the fantastic creations courtecy of the Science Specacular visitors
The Stand was divided into three portions; DNA sweets (which I previously blogged about), Cell Cookies and Protein Bracelets. I’ll put some more details up about the protein bracelets soon but for now I’ll run through cell cookies.
Up until now you may have thought the main function of digestive biscuits, giant chocolate buttons and jelly beans was to act as delicious treats. You were wrong. Together, they actually make a fantastic cell model. Who knew?
The premise of the activity is fairly simple. Digestive biscuits act as the base for animal cells and square crackers are plant cells. You can then add icing sugar, which acts as the cytoplasm that the sweetie organelles are attached to. Here’s the sweets I used for organelles;
Nucleus – Giant Chocolate Button
Mitochondria – Mini Jelly Beans
Cell Membrane – Red Laces (Only if you’re using larger biscuits)
Vesicles – Sugar balls (cake decorations)
Endoplasmic Reticulum – Jelly Snake
Golgi apparatus – Jelly Squirms
Chloroplasts – Chopped up green wine gums (left over from DNA sweets)
Cell Wall – Green fizzy lace.

I’m well happy with my cell cookie.
We realised on Saturday that the activity works really well at a science fair aimed at families because the younger children tend to be interested in the cookies, and the parents are interested in what’s inside cells. I think this could be a good as a group activity for children (or adults) of all ages as the amount of details you include can be adjusted. Also, if you were going to do this as an activity for AS level students it might be worth buying bigger biscuits to ensure you can get all the organelles on – maybe a water biscuit.
I’ve uploaded the instruction sheets I used on the here and as I haven’t had time to write about research yet (which is cell biology) this link provides some great info on cells.