So, in science we're doing a unit on reproduction. We've gone through the cell, mitosis and various forms of asexual reproduction and now we're moving on to sexual reproduction. The first outcome to cover is meiosis and, to be honest, I really don't understand it much myself. I mean, I get the basics, but not enough to really feel comfortable teaching it to my students. Does anyone have any suggestions on great activities, information, etc. that I could look at? TIA!
See if one of these helps: http://www.biologycorner.com/ http://www.dnai.org/ http://www.cellsalive.com/
For meiosis, I focus on the main ideas, instead of every minute detail. The students should know the following in terms of meiosis: 1. Like mitosis, the first thing to happen is chromosome replication. 2. Meiosis is involved in sexual reproduction. 4. There are two "stages" of meiosis resulting in 4 haploid cells. The students should be able to differentiate between the terms haploid and diploid. a. During meiosis I, prohpase I (synapsis) crossing over (swapping of genetic material) occurs. This causes genetic variation. This is one reason you do not look exactly like your siblings. 5. Independent Assortment - Another reason why you do not look exactly like your siblings. 6. Fertilization - restores the diploid number - reason why you are a combination of both parents. As for activities, I usually show them a picture of my family and ask why we do not look exactly alike. This ties in with meiosis nicely. Also pipe cleaners work wonders for crossing over. I also just found this activity and thought it was cute: http://www.sciencecases.org/mitosis_meiosis/mitosis_meiosis_notes.asp Here are some other resources: http://ninenightsofmatter.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html http://www.nclark.net/MitosisMeiosis http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/waldron/ http://www.basd.net/technology/STEEP/Science/Biology/ActivityinMeiosis.htm PowerPoint Presentation http://www.askthegnomes.com/REGENTS_BIOLOGY/BIONOTES.html
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/ I love this site. It has some great problems to work through with mitosis through genetics. http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/tutorials/meiosis/main.html is the particular area that deals with Meiosis. It is a tutorial with review questions at the end. It is well put together and easy to understand (put out by the University of Arizona)
When it come to mitosis, meiosis, DNA replication, transcription and translation I go to YouTube. There are some pretty good computer animations out there that shows these processes. Most of the kids like them because they can't picture it otherwise from a textbook, lecture or white board. Meiosis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1_-mQS_FZ0&NR=1 Mitosis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlN7K1-9QB0 Those are a few...there are more on YouTube which may be better. The arizona.edu site mentioned earlier is great, too. Good luck!
