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Katie Lynch

Ms. Miller

Honors Biology

6 January 2017

Project: Barcellona Map

Welcome to Barcellona! This little city is based off of how cells work. It has many

complex moving parts, but is ultimately a very efficient city. This city is based on a eukaryotic

cell.

To start, I will describe the inside of the city. The most important part of a eukaryotic cell

is the nucleus. It is where all the information is stored and where the decisions for the cell get

made. The nucleus is city hall, the control center for this community. Next are the chromosomes.

Chromosomes carry information from the nucleus to different parts of the cell to basically tell it

what to do. These chromosomes represent police officers and teachers in the city. The rough ER

of a cell is the school of the city. It is attached to the nuclear envelope around the nucleus, or city

hall, which makes it the perfect place to learn.

Then come ribosomes. Ribosomes put amino acids together to form proteins. That is why

ribosomes are the construction center of the city. Construction workers work here to build

buildings and other necessary things in a city. Additionally, this city needs a grocery store. Thats

where the smooth ER comes in. It is responsible for the production of things like steroids and

metabolism of fats. Also, the Golgi apparatus represents the post office. Its purpose is to package
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things and send them to different places within the cell. Therefore, it makes an excellent post

office, a building that packages and sends out mail.

Lysosomes break things down. They are the dumpsters of the city. Vesicles store and

transport things, so they are the garbage trucks in this city. Furthermore, the cytoskeleton, which

is a network that gives the cell shape, is the subway system. Vacuoles are spaces within cells

containing various materials. In this case, they will contain people! Vacuoles are the houses in

this city.

One of the most recognizable organelles of a cell is the mitochondria. It is called the

power house of the cell. That is why the mitochondria is the energy plant in the city. Lastly, the

membrane of a cell is this citys protective wall. The wall keeps the city safe from invaders and

gives it a shape. This is also how the cell, or city, maintains homeostasis by controlling what

enters and leaves the cell.

Moving on to the outside functions of the cell, various types of passive transportation can

be seen on the right side. The easiest type of passive transportation that is identified is the

circulation of oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the city. Secondly, facilitated diffusion

requires the help of carrier or transport proteins. The carrier or transport proteins represented are

trucks that carry substances across the membrane of the city. The last type of passive transport

the city uses is osmosis, or the diffusion of water. This city has a unique way of transporting and

purifying water into the city from an outside lake. It is an isotonic city, which means it gains and

loses water at the same rate so as to not experience a flood or drought. In order to achieve this,

the city built a channel going from the outside lake to the inside lake, purifying it along the way.
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On the other side of the city, one can see the district of active transportation. Here,

transportation requires energy. The city gets its energy from its workers and laborers. It needs

energy because it is moving materials from a low concentration to a high concentration.

Materials like this would be blocks or food from outside source needed inside the city, where

blocks for buildings and food for people is abundant.

That wraps up Barcellona! It is a unique city that has all the same functions of a

successful city. The organelles found within a cell are represented by ordinary systems found in

modern-day cities. The types of transportations performed by cells are also performed by this

city, although they are adapted to fit the needs of a city.