This has been, by far, my most popular song. It’s also the first science song I ever wrote, way back in 1988, in my first week of teaching at the Phoenix School of Roseburg, in Roseburg, Oregon. Scroll down below the video to read the lyrics.  Or

  1. Click for interactive tutorials and quizzes about cell parts and functions.
  2. Click to view a downloadable pdf of the lyrics on a separate page

The Cell Song

I went into a cell, to get out of the rain,
And there was the gatekeeper, the cell membrane.
I went into a cell, and what did I see?
The mitochondria, it’s the energy factory.
I went into a cell, and said “who drives this bus?”
And found myself talking to the boss, the nucleus.
I went into a cell, to recover from a spasm,
And found myself swimming in some clear cytoplasm.
 
I went into the nucleus to ask how to get home,
And got genetic info, stored in a chromosome.
I went into a cell, and stretching o’ so far,
Was a thin and wavy network, it’s called the E.R.
I went into a cell, trying not to be perplexed,
By the packaging and sorting in the Golgi complex.
I went into a cell, and said “who makes proteins here?”
And somebody responded “it’s the ribosome, my dear.”
I went into a cell, and was feeling pretty fine,
‘Til a lysosome engulfed me, and dissolved me in enzymes.
I went into a cell, and was feeling pretty nimble,
‘Til a centriole lassoed me, tying me up in a spindle.
 
I went into a plant cell to see how trees get so tall,
And all around the outside was a rigid cell wall.
I went into a plant cell, “why’s it so green I asked?”
“‘Cause I make food from sunlight,” said a green chloroplast.
I went into a plant cell to see how plant cells store food,
When a vacuole informed me that he was the storage dude.
 
So when you go inside a cell, remember what you see,
There’s over a trillion cells in both you and me.
Just sing this song if you ever feel confusion,
And remember active transport is the opposite of diffusion.