Why are Cells Small? Surface Area to Volume Ratio
Author(s): John Howard Starnes1, Christianne Baucom Nieuwsma2, Jennifer Glee Buntz3, Sondra Marie LoRe4, Vedham Karpakakunjaram5
1. Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College 2. South Mountain Community College 3. Central New Mexico Community College 4. SPEAR (STEM Program Evaluation, Assessment, & Research) Consultants 5. Montgomery College
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SA-V Graph matched to instructions.xlsx
SAtV.docxDescription
Why are Cells Small? was developed as part of an effort by the Quantitative Biology at Community Colleges group to provide materials that incorporate mathematical concepts into biology courses. The activity was designed for a non-majors biology course, and maps to Chapter 4 of the OpenStax Biology 2e textbook. This activity could also be used in a mathematics course as a biologically relevant example.
After completing this module students should be able to:
- Explain the relationship of surface area to volume
- Describe the importance of a large surface area to volume ratio in the context of a living cell
- Calculate surface area of cubes and spheres
- Calculate volume of cubes and spheres
- Express two values as a ratio
- Enter data into a table
- Interpret Tables
- Create a graph
- Describe the axis labels on graphs
- Interpret graphs
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1919613. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
- Starnes, J. H., Nieuwsma, C. B., Buntz, J. G., LoRe, S. M., Karpakakunjaram, V. (2020). Why are Cells Small? Surface Area to Volume Ratio. QB@CC Monday Pilot Incubator, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/4B1G-D309