This post originally appeared on the blog Science With Mrs Lau.
Learning about mitosis and meiosis in biology class can be challenging for students but I find it’s one of their favorites. Visual learners really thrive in this unit. Understanding how mitosis and meiosis work is essential for understanding independent assortment, genetics, and evolution so I spend a lot of time on this unit. I use a few different methods for helping students understand and really grasp the material.
1. I show a lot of animations! Mitosis is dynamic. Chromosomes move! It’s really important for them to see the process in action. There are loads of great animations online for teachers and here are a bunch that I like to use.
Stages of Mitosis
How Meiosis Works
Independent Assortment (Meiosis Orientation of Chromosomes)
Stages of Meiosis Virtual Cell: Mitosis
2. A teacher at a school I used to work at does a really cool project during this unit. She has student groups create stop motion animation videos of either mitosis or meiosis! Students are allowed to use any materials they want and the video has to have a minimum of 50 pictures (but more is way better!) When we co-taught a course, we required the regular level students create videos for mitosis and the honors level students created videos for meiosis. In each video, students had to have an identifying “token”, an item that they added into each picture/frame to show that they were the creators, to prevent video editing from stolen sources like Youtube or other online videos. Students really had fun with this and manipulating their materials to make the videos really helped them to cement the processes into memory. In this day and age, it’s actually quite easy for students with smart phones to create their own videos! Here is one of my favorite student videos: Lego Meiosis.
3. I use diagrams and coloring activities to help students identify the components and understand how chromosomes in cells move throughout the mitosis or meiosis timeline. I used to download pictures online, but now I create my own! You can see these in my store. I have coloring activities, cut and paste activities, and short simplified readings all in one package for mitosis, meiosis, spermatogenesis/oogenesis, and crossing over.
What techniques or resources do you like to use when teaching mitosis and meiosis? 
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I’m a high school science teacher taking a few years off of teaching to spend time with my 4 year old son and 7 month old daughter. I plan on going back to teaching and in the meantime, I create lessons that I always wished I had and plan on using in the future. I live in New Jersey, but our family loves to travel together and go on adventures. We lived in Hong Kong for 6 months (with a toddler!), and I can’t wait to go back to visit Asia and explore more of the other side of the world. I love genetics, and I studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before I realized teaching was my true calling. Social insects (outside my house) fascinate me and I want to be E.O. Wilson when I grow up. Visit my Instagram (@sciencemrslau) page or follow my blog to see my day-to-day adventures observing science with my kids. And check out my TeachersPayTeachers store to see the lessons I create. Here is a picture of me, carrying a sleeping toddler, by the beautiful fountain in Hong Kong Park.
