Meiosis Models

Hello and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is about a scimatics project, Meiosis Models.

Project Overview

This project was called “Meiosis Models” and in this project we learned about the cellular reproduction processes of meiosis and mitosis. To demonstrate and learn about this, we did an experiment where we “cloned” garlic, did lots of workbooks, and the final product was a video with Tinkercad models of each stage of mitosis and meiosis and some similarities between the two. 

Project Mind Map

Like all the other projects in scimatics, we started off with a mind map. In the mindmap I wrote questions, thoughts, and examples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what was added to the mind map at the end of the project:

Driving Question

How is the reproduction of cells essential to the survival of organisms? 

When cells are reproduced, living organisms are also reproduced. The copying of genetic material being passed down to the next generation is very important. Specifically Meiosis is important because it uses two sets of DNA to reproduce. If it was only one set, then the species can become vulnerable to specific details and one virus can find a way to wipe out the whole species. 

Curricular Competencies

Planning and conducting: Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative.)

To learn in this project, we did lots of workbooks on cellular reproduction and what meiosis and mitosis actually is. Another way we learned is through a Khan Academy quiz. To demonstrate our knowledge, we looked at cells in garlic roots and labelled different stages of mitosis happening in the root. I think this part of the project was pretty fun because we got to do an actual experiment using a microscope. It took my group a few tries to get good photos of the cells but eventually we found them. Here are the photos of mitosis we got:

Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest

I think I could’ve used this competency a bit better because I occasionally get off-task in class and it’s hard for me to stay focussed in scimatics.

Scientific Communication: Formulate physical or mental models to describe a phenomenon

I think I used this competency well by showing it in my final video, which I’ll write a bit about below.

The final product

Throughout this project, we had been playing around using Tinkercad, which is a website where you can design 3D objects. Using Tinkercad, we made each stage of mitosis and meiosis as 3D models. After making them all, we put them into a final video, which is below:

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think that this has been one of the more interesting scimatics projects. I enjoyed being able to actually see meiosis and mitosis happening in the garlic root, I thought that was pretty cool. That’s it for this blog post and thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Me