Mitosis & Meiosis

How is the reproduction of cells essential to the survival or organisms? This is something I didn’t know much about until we started working on this project over the last few weeks. To answer that question cell reproduction maintains as well as creates organisms which keeps it alive. 

Hello and welcome back to another scimatics post! This project that we just finished was based on cell reproduction as you might of guessed by the first question. This was a pretty interesting project which I enjoyed because I not only learned a lot, but we also got to use the microscopes during the last few weeks of this project. We also got to use a few cool apps to make things like 3D models which I will talk about in detail more later on. 

The first few things we did to start off this project included the project start mind map like every other project and a few workbooks. My mind map included a few questions I had along with the information I knew which I added to along the way. You can see how my final mind map turned out down below ⬇️

Using Tinkercad To Show My Learning:

After learning everything I needed to know about Mitosis and Meiosis it was time to create my 3D models. For these 3D models we used the app Tinkercad which was used in some of last years projects. Our task was to create the different phases of Mitosis and Meiosis in the Tinkercad. I created my 3D models of Mitosis and Meiosis then took pictures and make a keynote slideshow including them all. The first models I created were Mitosis so I ended up needing to revise them as they weren’t all accurate. In the end I think I did a pretty good job when creating these models and they looked good in my final product. You can check out all of my 3D models down below ⬇️

Mitosis and Meiosis Models

This brings me to the final product which was a narrated video. This was an excellent way to show all my learning throughout this project as it not only included my 3D models but some of the photos we got using the microscopes. I also of course made sure to narrate through the majority of the video and explain all the Mitosis and Meiosis steps. I enjoyed getting to create the video as it was a fun way to show my understanding. Check out how my final video turned out down below ⬇️

Curricular Competencies:

Questioning and Predicting:

I demonstrated a sustained intellectual curiosity about this scientific topic. I extended at this competency by using all my class time well without distractions. An example of this is when I made sure to use the time we received to work on our final narrated video. 

Planning and Conducting:

I extended at this competency by following the instructions while preparing the microscope slides of the plant tissues from the clones which we then used to get photographic evidence of the mitosis. In my final video I also made sure to compared my models to the photos we took in class if mitosis.

Scientific Communication:

In the end my video included my 3D models and narration which explained all the stages to Mitosis and Meiosis. I then also compared the Mitosis models to the photos we got of the different stages. At the end of the video I also made a slideshow style explanation of the similarities and differences between the two. If I were to revise this video I would have made recordings to add as voice over of the similarities and differences, I didn’t end up doing that as I added them later on. In the end I think a did a great job comparing the 3D models to the images.

Overall I think I accomplished this project a I feel I did a decent job at creating my models. I really liked my final video and am happy with the outcome. I definitely learned a lot from this project and I also enjoyed getting to use Tinkercad. Thanks for reading this post and I will be back with another shortly.