Issued

2021 - 2022

Type

Classroom Tools

Amount

$228

Applicant(s)

Mary Ellen Chaffin

Description

This grant will be used to purchase a 10-station kit from

Carolina Science. This kit is phenomenon based .

Students often struggle with the cell cycle (mitosis and

meiosis) because they are unable to observe what is

actually happening at the cellular level. This kit, which

can be used year after year, will enable them to use

modeling to answer the driving questions: What happens

to chromosomes when a cell divides to make a copy of

itself? and How is the chromosome number reduced in

sperm and egg cells so when they combine their

chromosomes, the new organism has the correct

number? The lab, which will take 5 days, also

underscores an NGSS standard: How are mitosis and

meiosis related?

This simulation kit allows students to apply the 3 core

elements of the district's Portrait of a Graduate; explore,

empower and engage. Because it is a modeling kit,

students will need to think creatively and collaborate with

their group members over the 5-day period required for

this lab. The concepts that are learned on the first day,

can then be applied on successive days. Once students

know the basics of the cell cycle, they will be able to

explore and learn through modeling (and mistakes) how

mitosis and meiosis are connected (HS-LS1-4 & HSLS3-

2). The Next Generation Science Standards

incorporates modeling and simulations into many of its'

standards with the long-term goal that doing so will

encourage and assist students in applying what they

learned to other processes. It is one thing to draw, label

and color the steps of the cell cycle (I do that already

with my students.). But this will allow students to observe

three dimensionally how meiosis and mitosis are

interrelated.