Update for the Week

This past week I was able to do different activities with my 7th and 8th grade science students where they were actively involved in their learning. Right now we are studying cell division. The students learned about cell organelles in the first chapter and this second chapter focuses on different cell processes. When the students were learning about cells in the first chapter they were able to use microscopes to observe different types of cells (onion root tip cells, cork cells and animal cells). This week the students looked again at the the onion root tip cells and this time they were looking for different types of cells. The different types of cells that they would see would show that the cells were going though cell division but that the cells were at different parts (different stages of mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase). This was an inquiry based activity because the students were not given specific instructions and guidance from me to walk them through the activity. They were instructed to find different types of cells within the onion root tip and relate those different types of cells to what they know about the stages of mitosis. Many students enjoyed the challenge of this activity while others struggled with not knowing what exactly they should be looking for and be seeing through their microscope. It was really neat for me to see those students that worked really hard at finding the different types of cells and how they worked together with their group members. It was also cool for me to see when they were successful in finding the different types of cells and how much they were talking about the different phases that they saw and how cool they thought it was.