Science Kit
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.