Discovering the Cell Cycle and the Faces of Mitosis Lab
These labs were in the mitosis part of the chapter. The class had just been taught about the different phases of mitosis: Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telephase. To best observe these different phases take place, we were given onion root tips to observe under the microscope to find and see these different phases. However, we also had to do an additional task: When we saw a group of onion root cells through the microscope, we had to count how many cells were in each phase of the cell cycle, and the amount of cells in that particular stage would correlate to how much time each cell spent in one stage of the cell cycle. The official results stated the cells should spend 91.6% of the time in Interphase, 3.9% in Prophase, 1.7% in Metaphase, 1.5% in Anaphase, and 1.1% in Telphase. In this experiment, we learned that the cell spends most of its time in Interphase. We also had some practice with a Chi-squared statistical test with the collected data, which will be useful in the next few chapters.
The follow up lab to the Discovering the Cell Cycle Lab was the Faces of Mitosis Lab. In this lab, we created our own onion root tip plates to observe by ourselves, and spent more time looking at the actual cells than just counting them. We looked at each cell in a different stage and tried to identify the key characteristic that told us that the cell was in a particular stage. From this lab, we could identify what cell was in what stage pretty easily, as each phase of mitosis was distinct in different ways.
Visit http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/activities/cell_cycle/cell_cycle.html for more information and activities with onion root tip cells
The follow up lab to the Discovering the Cell Cycle Lab was the Faces of Mitosis Lab. In this lab, we created our own onion root tip plates to observe by ourselves, and spent more time looking at the actual cells than just counting them. We looked at each cell in a different stage and tried to identify the key characteristic that told us that the cell was in a particular stage. From this lab, we could identify what cell was in what stage pretty easily, as each phase of mitosis was distinct in different ways.
Visit http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/activities/cell_cycle/cell_cycle.html for more information and activities with onion root tip cells