Name: Date: Class Period:

Plant Cell and Animal Cell

Compare and Contrast
Assessment C

For the following questions, be sure to answer in complete sentences. Be sure to use
proper vocabulary words where it is applicable. Please use a separate piece of paper if
you feel it is necessary.

1.) What is the difference in the outside structures of plant cells and animal cells?
Are they the same? Are they different? Explain

2.) In what ways (at least 2) are plant cells and animal cells similar?

3.) In what way(s) does a plant cell get energy? Is that the same as an animal cell
gets energy? Explain.

4.) Based on what you know about plant cells, and based on the answer you stated
above in question 3, how do you think plant cells get energy at night if there is no
sunlight for photosynthesis?
For the next section, place each vocabulary word in the correct placement within
the Venn diagram provided below. You may use each vocabulary word only
once. Be sure to label each section of the Venn diagram as “plant cell” or “animal
cell.”

Cell wall Cell membrane Cytoplasm Nucleus

Cytoskeleton Endoplasmic Reticulum Mitochondria

Chloroplast Vacuole Lysosomes

Ribosomes Golgi bodies Nuclear envelope

Answer Key (examples of adequate answers)
1.) The outsides of these cells are different. Plant cells have a cell wall so they are
more rigid and they hold their structure more than an animal cell. An animal cell is
more nebulous and less rigid than plant cells because they are only surrounded by a
cell membrane.

2.) Plant cells are similar because they both have similar structures. They each have
a nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria, lysosomes, cell membranes, nuclear envelopes,
ERs, Golgi bodies, vacuoles (although plant cells have one central vacuole and
animal cells have many), cytoplasm, and cytoskeletons. They both complete life
functions of gathering and expending energy.

3.) A plant cell gets energy it two ways. It gets energy from light, through
photosynthesis that is carried out in the chloroplasts. It also gets energy from the
plant in the form of sugar (glucose) that is processed in the mitochondria. This is not
the same way that animal cells get energy because animal cells cannot complete
photosynthesis because they do not contain chloroplasts.

4.) Plants would get energy form the glucose stored in the plant during the dark
hours of the day or night. Photosynthesis needs sunlight to be completed so an
alternative source of energy is the glucose from the plant that is processed in the
mitochondria inside the plant cell.

Venn Diagram

Plant Cell Only Both Cells Animal Cells Only

Chloroplasts Cell membrane *None
Cell Wall *Vacuole(s)
Lysosomes
Golgi Bodies
Nucleus
Nuclear Envelope
Cytoskeleton
Mitochondria
Endoplasmic Reticulum
Ribosomes
Cytoplasm

*Students may say that plant cells have a central vacuole and that animal cells
have numerous vacuoles. That is also acceptable.