Mitosis and Meiosis

Activities

• Have students make mitosis and meiosis flip books. The meiosis images (which are in 5 separate files on the “flip book” site) are consolidated here.
• Using plastic forks, knives, and spoons to demonstrate Mitosis: Chromosome Replication & Division.
• Play the “Mitosis Rap” song for your students . This song was written and performed by Ramon Nieves, a former student in one of Mrs Rebello’s science classes at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School. (You can save the song by right-clicking on the link and selecting “Save Target As.”)
• Try this “Cell Division Jeopardy” game.
• A simple Meiosis worksheet.
• “Cell and Mitosis” crossword puzzle and answers.
• Try this simple “Modeling Crossing Over” (doc) activity.
• Using the Inspiration  software, Sue Hinojoza has created a concept map about “Chromosomes” (pdf). It includes information about meiosis and fertilization with questions. If your school has this program, creating your own maps is a good way to introduce vocabulary.
• Using the Cells Alive website, Maria Ferraro contributed this “The Cell Cycle and Animal Cell Mitosis” (doc) worksheet.
• In “Online Onion Root Tips” students identify the phases of mitosis and determine the time spent in time spent in different phases of the cell cycle.
• “Mitosis & Mitosis: Doing It On the Table” is and activity designed to help students to learn the critical distinctions between what happens to chromosomes during mitosis vs meiosis.
• “It’s Mitosis Time” (ppt) is a Karaoke PowerPoint set to the music of “Celebration Time” by Kool and the Gang. It was created by Dr. Annette Parrott. You will need to save the file and open it in PowerPoint to have the music play throughout.
• Scott Greenhalgh from the NSTA Listserve contributed this “Meiosis Web Lesson” (doc) that uses this Meiosis Animation.
• Show Michael Clark’s “Mitosis” PowerPoint presentation.
• Watch Frank Gregorio’s very dramatic YouTube video of “Cell Division and the Cell Cycle.”

Labs

• Have students do this “Observing Mitosis Lab” (pdf) using prepared slides of onion (Allium) root tips.
• Another good “Stages of Mitosis” lab using onion root tip slides.
• Do the “Modeling Meiosis” Lab using modeling clay of different colors to represent the chromosomes.
• Simulate mitosis and meiosis in an imaginary animal called a Frimpanzee (doc).

Links

• A good animation of animal cell mitosis: http://www.cellsalive.com/mitosis.htm
• A meiosis animation: http://meiosistutorial.net/
•  Another good meiosis animation: http://www.cellsalive.com/meiosis.htm 
• A meiosis tutorial that includes : http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/tutorials/meiosis/main.html
• Mitosis tutorial: http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/tutorials/cell_cycle/main.html
•  Good animation with audio of mitosis and cytokinesis: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072437316/student_view0/chapter11/animations.html 
• Java animation of mitosis: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/mitosis/
• Meiosis animation: http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/notebook/courses/guide/movie/meiosis.htm
• mitosis and meiosis movies: http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/anthropology/stein2003/stein.html
• Meiosis animation: http://www.csuchico.edu/~jbell/Biol207/animations/meiosis.html
• An animated comparison of mitosis and meiosis: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/how-cells-divide.html
•  Animations with audio of meiosis and the comparison between meiosis and mitosis: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072437316/student_view0/chapter12/animations.html#
• An introduction to mitosis with animation and quiz: http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/anisamples/majorsbiology/mitosis.html
• Another good meiosis animation: http://www.johnkyrk.com/meiosis.html