ooooh – quickie biology lesson!
On 2 December, 2011 by Allison Krug With 5 Comments
- events
Nothing gets me more excited than that! An impromptu lesson as I carried cookies to the table!
"Boys! This is like your SKIN!" Skin cells have a signaling mechanism whereby bumping into each other signals full growth, and no further replication by mitosis necessary. So cool!
"And this is CANCER." Cell signaling goes awry and they keep replicating, creating a tumor.
"Mom, what happens when you get a bump on the head?" Well let's just pretend my arm is a blood vessel - more fluid comes into the area and causes the swelling you see with a bruise. We also talked about a cut - separation between the cookies, then filling back in with new growth.
Wow! What a vocabulary lesson too!
By the way, what kind of cookies are they? I might want to make some myself. Look very good.
Love it!!
Next lesson – those fat cells! They’re not cancer, but if we eat more than we burn, it’s the fat cells that keep growing, not the muscles, and not the hair or anything else. Ugh!
Ditto Marilou’s comment – what kind of cookie are those! Somehow we ended up with 3 jars of molasses and while I will be donating as much as we can to Josh’s next batch of homebrew, it won’t take it all! I’m looking for recipes with molasses and these look like gingersnaps? BTW, love your science lesson using cookies! You are so imaginative!