Mitosis hands on activity

Aim: The purpose of this lab is to help students gain an understanding of the
changes that occur in the nuclear area of a cell during cell division. Students
should have read about or seen an animation of mitosis and meiosis before
attempting this activity.
Time for activity: This should take 1 lesson to complete
Assessment: Use the concepts as a basis for building questions on the critical
distinctions and functions of mitosis and meiosis, and the essential reason
why these two processes occur (much more important than memorizing the
names of every stage). The worksheet has a couple of questions to get see if
students have understood what they have just done but the teacher should
also discuss the lab at the end of class and ask students questions to assess
whether they have understood.

The first part of the activity requires students to model the stages of mitosis
on their own however meiosis should be completed as a class as it is more
complicated and students are more likely to have difficulties. It is important
to get students involved while modeling meiosis by asking questions and
asking them what they think the next step is.

This activity was modeled on a similar one from

http://www2.gsu.edu/~mstnrhx/Lessons/plan27.htm

Mitosis
Mitosis and meiosis are the cells ways of passing on their genetic material.
This activity is designed to help you model the movement of chromosomes in
these processes using pipe cleaners and string. As you go through this
activity you should draw the stages in your book so you can remember them.
What you will need:
6 pieces of pipe cleaner (different colours and lengths in sets of 2)
6 lengths of yarn to model your spindle fibers
Procedure: Mitosis

On a piece of paper draw a large circle that is going to be your cell and
a smaller circle that represents the nuclear envelope. Draw these in
pencil! Place 3 pieces of pipe cleaner (each a different colour) in the
nucleus. These are your chromosomes.
During the S part of the cell cycle the cell reproduces the DNA. Place
the remaining pipe cleaners onto the nucleus. You now have double the
genetic material which needs to be separated.
The first thing the cell does is to get these chromosomes in a more
manageable state. You now need to wrap your pairs of pipe cleaners
around each other so that they look like an X. This is what we can see
during prophase when the nuclear envelope disappears. You now need
to erase your circle that is the nuclear envelope.

During metaphase the chromosomes align at the equatorial plane

(down the middle) and the spindle forms. Line up your chromosomes
from the top of the nucleus to the bottom. With your yarn tie 3 pieces
together and place them lengthwise along the cell. Do this with the
other three. You should end up with something that looks like this:

The next phase is anaphase. Unwrap your pipe cleaners and lie them
next to each other on the spindle fibers. Move one of each chromatid

(pipe cleaner) to the side of the nucleus along the spindle fiber. You
have just separated your chromosomes.

The final stage is telophase. This is where the nuclear envelope

reforms around the chromosomes. Take away your spindle fibers (yarn)
and draw a circle around the chromosomes on the left of your cell and
a circle around the chromosomes on the right. Congratulations you
now know the steps involved in mitosis!
The very last thing that happens when cells divide is called cytokinesis.
This is not a part of mitosis but is an important step after it. In
cytokinesis the cytoplasm divides so that you are left with your two
new daughter cells. For this step you may either cut down the middle
of your piece of paper or you can just draw a line down to show your
two new cells.

Questions:
1. In this model what do the pipe cleaners represent?
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2. Why did we need to double the pipe cleaners?
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3. What did the yarn represent and what did they do?
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4. What stage of mitosis is the following cell in?

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