Education Technology


Life Science: The Cell Cycle

by Texas Instruments - Simulation Lesson

Objectives

  • Students will identify the changes that occur in cells during each phase of mitosis.
  • Students will correlate these changes to the duration of time cells spend in each phase.
  • While looking at a section of an onion root tip, students will count the number of cells observed in each phase of the cell cycle. They will then estimate the amount of time that a cell spends in each of the phases of the cell cycle.
  • Students will watch a simulation of the process of mitosis and answer accompanying questions.

Vocabulary

  • anaphase
  • cell cycle
  • chromosomes
  • interphase
  • metaphase
  • mitosis
  • prophase
  • nucleus
  • telophase

About the Lesson

In this lesson, students investigate the cell cycle, which includes interphase and mitosis.

As a result, students will:

  • Identify the major changes that occur in a cell during each phase of mitosis by watching a simulation.
  • Correlate the time a cell spends in each phase with the number of cells in a rapidly dividing region of an onion root tip undergoing each phase.
  • Understand the implications of the differences between cells that have long or short cell cycles.