Inside Job - Free Classroom Simulation

Biology Grades 9-10 6 roles 45 min 1 class period

One cell in the lining of someone's airway, over one day, with a virus hiding inside.

Six groups run the organelles of one airway cell for a day, while a virus secretly uses one of them to copy itself. The class reads the cell's own numbers to find it.

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Class Time

45 minutes

Designed For

1 class period

Roles

6 roles

Class Sizes

Six groups

Learning Objectives

3 objectives

Standards

10 standards aligned

Where This Fits in Your Curriculum

Play it in the HS Biology cells unit after students know each organelle's one-line job: it reviews how a cell's parts work together (MS-LS1-2), builds toward gene-to-protein (HS-LS1-1) and how a cell responds to its surroundings, and its virus meets the state standards that ask how viruses use a host cell and spread (Texas 5D, Virginia BIO.4, Georgia SB4.c). Students do not need transcription or translation in detail, and they do not need to know influenza. Underneath the hidden-role game it teaches that a cell is a chain of hand-offs, that every part depends on the ones before it, and that evidence beats what people say. It fits Biology 9-10, Honors review, and AP Biology as a review day on organelles and the 5' cap.

What Students Will Learn

Explain how the nucleus, ribosomes, Golgi apparatus, membrane, mitochondria and lysosome each contribute to making and releasing a protein.
Use evidence from a chain of hand-offs to locate where a process broke down, and tell a normal loss from an abnormal one.
Describe how a virus uses a host cell's own machinery to copy itself, and why an infected cell may shut itself down.

Cases Included

NGSS MS-LS1-2 (review) - develop and use a model to describe how the parts of a cell contribute to its function.
NGSS HS-LS1-1 (builds toward) - DNA determines the structure of proteins that carry out a specialized cell's work: the nucleus's blueprints become mucin.
NGSS DCI LS1.A (connects to) - feedback mechanisms keep a living system's conditions within limits: the airway needs just enough mucus as the air changes.
NGSS CCC Structure and Function; Systems and System Models; Stability and Change.
NGSS SEP 2 - using a model: the trace strip is a model of the protein pathway.
Texas Biology 5D (partial) - how viruses spread and cause disease; the game does not compare their structures.
Virginia BIO.4 a - viruses and how they depend on host cells.
Georgia SB1.a - organelles interact as a system to maintain homeostasis; SB4.c (partial) - evidence that a virus needs a host cell.
AP Biology 2.1.A (review) - organelle functions, including the Golgi adding sugars.
AP Biology 6.3.A.4 (review) - the 5' cap: influenza steals the cell's caps (cap-snatching).

Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Aligned to the CASEL framework's core competencies. These are the SEL skills students actively practice while playing.

Responsible Decision-Making The Lysosome's strike and the Mitochondria's night call are made on evidence, with a real cost for guessing wrong.
Relationship Skills Every group depends on numbers another group holds, and the class has to weigh evidence when everyone says the same thing.
Self-Management The virus group keeps a secret for most of the period and plays its part's normal job in the open.

Flexible Class Sizes

Six groups

For any class size: six groups of 1 to 6 students. Four or five is best.

How the Game Plays Out

Roles Your Students Will Play

Click any role to see their background and what they are trying to accomplish.

Mitochondria

The mitochondria turn food into ATP, the energy every other part uses. Dust and smoke in the air set off a calcium signal inside the cell, and the mitochondria speed up.

Goals

Tell the Nucleus the irritant signal every hour.
Tell the Membrane the energy left.
Make the night call on evidence.

Nucleus

The nucleus holds the cell's genes. When the air gets dirty it turns up the mucin gene and sends out blueprints (messenger RNA).

Goals

Send the right number of blueprints every hour.
Watch the strip for blueprints that never arrive.

Membrane

The membrane is the cell's outer edge. Stored mucus leaves the cell here, when a vesicle joins the membrane and empties it (exocytosis).

Goals

Release the right amount every hour so the airway stays clear.
Keep an eye on the store.

Ribosomes

The ribosomes sit on the rough endoplasmic reticulum and read each blueprint to build mucin, the protein in mucus.

Goals

Read your numbers aloud at the trace.
Watch the strip for protein that never reaches the Golgi.

Golgi

The Golgi apparatus adds sugars to mucin and packs mucus into vesicles to store until the membrane releases it.

Goals

Read your numbers aloud at the trace.
Watch the strip for packed mucus that never reaches storage.

Lysosome

The lysosome breaks down worn parts so the cell can reuse them. In this game it also recycles the machinery a virus is using: the strike.

Goals

Read every strip for drops bigger than the normal loss.
Make the strike on evidence, not on who looks nervous.

Hand Each Student Their Own Sheet

One click on the teacher dashboard prints a dossier for every role - background, goals, key facts, and their confidential briefing - plus the primary-source packet and a vocabulary sheet. Print them, or save as PDF, so each student reads their role on paper instead of huddling around one screen. The app still runs the votes and the action; the paper just carries the reading.

Primary Sources

Every role includes real historical documents. Students read them because they need the information to make their case.

Key Terms Students Will Learn

organellenucleusgenemessenger RNAribosomerough endoplasmic reticulumprotein foldingGolgi apparatusvesicleexocytosismitochondrionATPlysosomemucinhomeostasisvirusapoptosisgoblet cell

After the Game: Debrief Questions

Where did mucus go missing, if anywhere? Was each drop a normal loss, or bigger than its normal loss?
The virus group made choices. Real viruses cannot choose. Why does a real virus look like it hides?

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