This Grade 9 Plant vs Animal Cells worksheet helps students compare similarities and differences between plant and animal cells.
Students will complete fill-in-the-blank questions covering organelles, structures, and key cell functions.
Plant vs Animal Cells — Practice
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Try these before or after you print the worksheet. The printable asks you to fill in the words. This asks which parts belong to which cell — the comparison the sheet is named after but never quite makes you do.
Question 1 — put them in order
Click these in order, from the outside of a plant cell inwards.
Wall → membrane → cytoplasm → nucleus. The rigid wall is outermost, the membrane sits just inside it, the cytoplasm fills the space, and the nucleus sits within that. An animal cell has the same order minus the wall.
Question 2
Which part is found in plant cells but not animal cells?
Chloroplasts — they make food from light, which animal cells do not do. Nucleus, mitochondria and membrane are in both.
Question 3
What does the cell membrane do?
Controls what enters and leaves. The nucleus controls the cell's activities — two different kinds of controlling, which is what makes this pair easy to mix up.
Question 4
Why is a plant cell usually more rectangular than an animal cell?
The cell wall. It is rigid, so the cell keeps a boxy shape. An animal cell has only a flexible membrane, so it has no fixed shape to keep.
Question 5
Which part produces energy in both plant and animal cells?
Mitochondria. Plant cells have chloroplasts as well, but both kinds of cell respire — so both need mitochondria.
Question 6 — select all that apply
Select every part that both plant and animal cells have, then press Check.
Nucleus, cytoplasm and mitochondria. The cell wall, chloroplasts and a large vacuole are the plant cell's extras — which is exactly the comparison this worksheet is about.
Think about it
A plant cell has everything an animal cell has, plus three extras. What are they, and what does each one do?
Chloroplasts make food and mitochondria release energy from it. Why does a plant cell need both?
The cell wall keeps a plant cell rigid. What might happen to a plant that cannot take in enough water?
Both cells have a nucleus. Why does every cell need one?