mr g --I am about to do this activity and was wondering if you had any worksheets available?? Or any other guidelines for the activity you would recommmend??

Thanks so much!!
Caroline | Email | Homepage | 02.12.06 - 10:12 pm | #

Caroline - I don't have any worksheets for this activity. I will probably develop one this year when I get to it, but that's a few weeks away. Last year I simply gave them verbal instructions and supplied them with materials and resources (textbooks, e.g) and let them sort it out.
Basically each student gets a sheet of 11X17 paper. They draw 5 circles for the each of the major phases - PMAT plus cytokinesis. With Telophase two circles overlap to show the beginning of cytokinesis (the pinching) and for cytokinesis itself two full circles, a little smaller than the original. These things I demonstrate on the board. I go through the basic idea of a model, with different colors representing different chromosomes, same colors representing sister chromatids, the white piece of pipe cleaner represents the centrioles, and I let them just draw lines to represent the spindle fibers, but you could use string for that. They need to draw a solid line representing the intact nuclear membrane, and a dotted line shows it breaking down. No line means the membrane is completely broken down.
As for guidelines, stick with one pair of chromosomes - it gets messy with more than that, and it's too simple with a single chromosome. If you have time, order your pipe cleaners in bulk from a craft store online. I had a large number of wire cutters available last year, so I let the students cut the pipe cleaners, but this year I'll probably have to pre-cut them myself unless I come up with an alternative.
mister g | Email | Homepage | 02.13.06 - 6:09 am | #