In this virtual lab, your students will learn about mitosis and meiosis. These two types of cell division seem very similar on the surface but have several key differences which students will encounter in this activity.
Mitosis consists of one cell division, whereas meiosis consists of two successive cell divisions. In mitosis, the result is two daughter cells but in meiosis the result is four daughter cells. When cells divide in mitosis, the daughter cells are genetically the same but in meiosis, daughter cells are genetically different. These are just some of the differences in these two processes.
There are some similarities, too. Each process goes through the same phases and ends with cytokinesis. Both processes end with the sister chromatids at opposite sides of the cell as well.
What will my students learn?
Students will learn the phases of mitosis: interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis.
And the phases of meiosis: interphase, prophase I, metaphase I, anaphase I, telophase I and cytokinesis. (This process then repeats.)
Students will fill in the data table, answer questions and create a Venn diagram to help them grasp the similarities and differences of the two processes.
Students will complete the interactive lab activity which allows them to visualize how mitosis and meiosis happen under a microscope. This is my favorite part of the lab!
Once they have gone through both sections, students will get a chance to compare mitosis and meiosis side by side at the same time.
Can you list some other differences between mitosis and meiosis?
Please leave a comment and let us know how the lab went!
What will your students learn in this virtual microscope lab?
In this virtual microscope lab, your students will learn about different types of microscopes.
Students will explore the light microscope and the electron microscopes.
Students will learn about the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the transmission electron microscope (TEM).
Students will also “Evaluate the frontier of molecular and cellular research before and after the invention of microscopes” while completing this virtual microscope lab.
Teaching Students to Write Scientific Articles and Lab Reports
The importance of being able to understand and explain in clear language the meaning of fundamental scientific concepts is central to science literacy. One study examining factors that influenced student success in scientific writing found that the only accurate predictor was prior scientific writing experience.
Students need practice, and it is up to science instructors to require students to write in their classes and to seek the best ways to teach them to write effectively.
Other studies have demonstrated that an explicit focus on building students’ scientific writing abilities also improves students’ critical thinking skills, their ability to read and understand scientific literature, and their overall success in the biology curriculum. Thus, for multiple reasons, there is a real need for practical tools to facilitate scientific writing instruction.
Students make the most progress in their writing when assignments are broken into small chunks. When discussing any research study, it is essential to understand the purpose, the process, and the findings.
A successful ‘Results’ section weaves together all three of these aspects, so it is a good place to start. Have students work in pairs or small groups and read the ‘Results’ paragraph of a published article. They will then answer the following five questions:
1) WHY? was the experiment performed. What question was it trying to
answer?
2) HOW?
was the question approached; what was actually done? Summarizing the procedure
helps students make connections between their experimental question and the
data. The details of the procedure should be sufficient to interpret the data, but
not as detailed as in the Materials and Methods section.
3)WHERE? In which table or figure are the data shown? For example,
“As shown in Table 2…” or at the end of a sentence (Figure3).
4) WHAT? A full description of the actual results of the experiment is
next. This is not a list of all the data, but it should describe overall trends
over time and differences between samples at each time point.
5) So? This is a discussion; based on the results, what is the answer
to the original question? In scientific writing, it’s important to connect the
WHAT? (what you observed in the experiment) to the SO?, ie. the original
question the experiment was trying to answer. From there, the conclusion could
go on to compare the data from this study to other published data from similar
studies, and then to a proposal for further follow-up experiments or a
suggestion of the broader implications of the results.
Once students have thoroughly dissected the article, assess them by having each student write a ‘Results’ section for an experiment they have performed in class. You can click here to download the Mealworm Lab! Once they master ‘Results’, other sections can be introduced in similar fashion.
References:
1.Jerde CL,
Taper ML. 2004. Preparing undergraduates for professional writing:
evidence supporting the benefits of scientific writing within the biology
curriculum. J Coll Sci Teach. 33:33-36.
2. Libarkin J, Ording G.
2012. The utility of writing assignments in undergraduate bioscience. CBE Life
Sci Educ. 11:39-46.
3. Quitadamo IJ, Kurtz MJ. 2007. Learning to improve: using
writing to increase critical thinking performance in general biology education.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 6:140-154.
4.Brownell SE, Price JV, Steinman L. 2013. A writing-intensive
course improves biology undergraduates’ perception and confidence of their
abilities to read scientific literature and communicate science. Adv Physiol
Educ. 37:70-79.
When I first started teaching, I wanted my students to write lab report base on the mealworm lab(see post) that I had them do.
It did not take long to realize that they needed all the help they could get!
It is not a surprise. They had never had to write a lab report before.
In order to help them I spent countless hours building this lab report template and guide that the student could use to help them build high quality lab reports.
I developed a lab report rubric that is about as detailed as it can get. It makes lab reports very easy to do and grade. It is based on 110 point scale.
