Year 7 Science · Unit 1 · Lesson 6
Foundation Worksheet
Learning Goals
Match each name to its description
Write the letter of the correct description next to each name.
| Name | Letter | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Hooke | A. Built strong single-lens microscopes and was the first person to see living cells, in pond water (1670s). | |
| Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | B. Said all animals are made of cells too (1839). | |
| Matthias Schleiden | C. Looked at cork in 1665 and named the tiny boxes he saw “cells”. | |
| Theodor Schwann | D. Said every cell comes from an existing cell, which completed cell theory (1855). | |
| Rudolf Virchow | E. Three rules: all living things are made of one or more cells, the cell is the basic unit of life, and all cells come from existing cells. | |
| Cell theory | F. Said all plants are made of cells (1838). |
True or false? Fix the false ones
Circle T or F. If a statement is false, correct it on the line.
1. Virchow added the third tenet of cell theory.
Correct it:
2. Robert Hooke was the first person to see bacteria swimming in pond water.
Correct it:
3. Schwann concluded that animals are made of cells in 1839, one year after Schleiden’s conclusion about plants.
Correct it:
4. All cells come from non-living matter under the right conditions.
Correct it:
5. The three rules of cell theory were proven wrong in the 1900s.
Correct it:
1. List the three tenets of cell theory in your own words.
2. Hooke looked at cork in 1665, but he did not see living cells. Explain what he actually saw, and why it was still an important discovery.
Read the data
Scenario: two microscopes
Hooke and Leeuwenhoek both built their own microscopes. Table 1 compares them.
| Feature | Hooke | Leeuwenhoek |
|---|---|---|
| Lenses | two lenses in a tube | one tiny, carefully ground glass bead |
| Magnification | about 30 times | nearly 300 times |
| Picture | blurry at the edges | sharp enough to draw from |
| Specimen looked at | a thin slice of cork (dead bark) | pond water, rainwater, scrapings from his teeth |
| What he saw | empty box-shaped walls | tiny things wriggling and swimming |
Source: facts from Lesson 6.
3. How many times greater was the magnification of Leeuwenhoek’s microscope than Hooke’s? Show your working.
Answer times
4. Leeuwenhoek saw living cells and Hooke did not. Give two reasons from Table 1.
5. Hooke is often called “the man who discovered cells”, but Leeuwenhoek was the first to see living cells. Whose contribution do you think was more important? Explain your choice.
Match each name to its description
Robert Hooke → C; Antonie van Leeuwenhoek → A; Matthias Schleiden → F; Theodor Schwann → B; Rudolf Virchow → D; Cell theory → E.
True or false
1. True. 2. False: Leeuwenhoek was the first to see living microbes in pond water; Hooke saw empty cork cells. 3. True. 4. False: all cells come from existing cells (Virchow, 1855). 5. False: the three rules still hold today.
Question 1
All living things are made of one or more cells (1). The cell is the basic unit of life, the smallest thing that is alive (1). All cells come from existing cells (1). [3 marks]
Question 2
The empty walls left behind in dead cork bark (1). It was the first view of the cell, the building block of life, and gave us the word “cell” (1). [2 marks]
Question 3
300 ÷ 30 (1) = 10 times (1). [2 marks]
Question 4
Any two (1 each): a stronger, sharper lens (nearly 300 times, one bead, not blurry); he looked at living specimens such as pond water, while cork is dead bark. [2 marks]
Question 5
Marking guide: 1 clear choice; 1 what Hooke saw and gave (empty cork walls; the word “cell”, 1665); 1 what Leeuwenhoek saw (living microbes, 1670s); 1 evidence (e.g. magnification, specimen); 1 reasoned comparison. Either side earns full marks. [5 marks]
Model answer: Leeuwenhoek’s was more important. Hooke named cells, but he saw only the empty walls of dead cork through a blurry 30-times lens. Leeuwenhoek’s sharp bead lens magnified nearly 300 times, and he saw living cells swimming in pond water. That showed cells are alive, not just empty boxes.
Common error: saying Hooke saw living cells; cork is dead bark.