Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post. For the past little bit we have been working on a Scimatics project called Meiosis Models. We had to take pictures using a microscope, create 3-D models of each stage of mitosis and meiosis using and app called TinkerCad. I really like this project because at the beginning I knew nothing about meiosis and mitosis and by the end I knew all the different stages and could confidently explain what happened in each one. You can see my growth as a learned in my project MindMap. 

Driving Question: How is the reproduction of cells essential to the survival of organisms?

Answer: Cell reproduction maintains and creates organisms that keep the eco-system up and running.

As usual, we started off this project with a MindMap. I think this was a really good way to start off the project because we could see how much about meiosis and mitosis that we already knew. After doing this, we were able to see that we had a lot left to learn. You can see my MindMap below ⬇️ 

Next up, to get refresh our understanding of TinkerCad which we had already used in previous project which you can check out here. To refresh our memory on this, we competed TinkerCad tutorials. I think that this was a really good way to improve my skills of 3-D modelling and also give me a chance to understand what the final project would be. You can check out the tutorials that I did below⬇️ 

Next up we did a bunch of workbooks as per usual. I think that this was a really good way to build my founding knowledge of myosis and mitosis. By doing these workbooks I finalized my thoughts and ideas on meiosis and mitosis. It also helped me with the final video and what to write for my script.

After that we did the final meiosis and mitosis models. We worked on them separately and then brought them all together and a keynote presentation that we handed into Showbie. I think that this was a really good thing to do because it was an outline for my final video and it was very helpful to do the Tinkercad tutorials because I was very speedy at producing my final models. You can check out what I did for my final models below ⬇️ 

After that we did a Khan Academy test. I think that this was one final way that I really solidified my understanding of mitosis and meiosis. It also was a good indicator for where I was and what else I needed to learn. After doing it I realize that I had a pretty solid understanding of what it was but I needed to work a little bit more on memorizing each of the phases.

Finally I started working on my final narrated video. This was a good way for me to demonstrate what I learned through at the entire project in a creative way that I felt fit the criteria of the project. I really enjoyed getting to layer all of my work together and seeing it all come together with voice overs and correct information that portrayed my learning of meiosis and mitosis. You can check out what I did for my final narrated video below⬇️ 

Curricular Competencies:

Questioning and predicting:

I think I did decent on this competency. Even though I was working with my good friends and I had good friends sitting around me, I was still very productive. I think that I could have done better on this by really making sure I was maximizing my class time work, but overall I really think that I did a pretty good job managing my time.

Planning and conducting:

For this I feel like I did very well. My microscope slides and my pictures of the individual phase that I took through the microscope were very clear and I think they went really well with my narrated video. I think that my pictures added in a nice touch to my narrated video as well as adding real life examples for what my models look like.

Scientific communication:

I feel like I did a pretty good job recording a video with voice narration that explains the reasons and processes of mitosis and meiosis with accurate 3-D models in photographs. I feel like I could’ve had clearer narration  video and a clearer voice I also feel like to add a more sophisticated level of understanding to this competency I could’ve added music in the background. However I think that I did a good job explaining that the similarities and differences between meiosis and mitosis. 

Overall I’m very proud of my final video and I think that I did a pretty decent job getting accurate photographs of the different stages of meiosis and mitosis. I really liked this project because of the freedom that we had creating the 3-D models. I learned so much about mitosis and meiosis. I learned all the different stages and when happens in each one.

Thanks for reading that post of my latest Scimatics project!

Best wishes,

-Dana