Chapter 3B: Cell Division - Assignments

(Print this document to use as a reference for completing Chapter 3 Assignments.)

Read the materials for Chapter 3
Note the objectives and read carefully taking notes.
READ the chapter in your book, carefully taking notes.
After reading the materials, complete the following assignments for Chapter 3: Cell Division

Textbook Companion

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Course Companion: Web Links

  1. Go to your textbook companion site:
  2. Click the link for chapter web links
  3. Write a brief summary of what you learned from reading the report.  You must have at least three specific statements of things you learned (or found interesting).  You must include both the name of the reading and the URL in your summary.
  4. Post your summary on the class discussion board as a reply to the appropriate thread. 
  5. Read at least one of the summaries that your classmates have posted.  Reply to your classmate's summary with a list of at least two things you found interesting about that summary.  You must make an original reply.  Any replies that appear very similar to the replies of another student will not receive credit.  It would probably be best to reply to a summary that does not have a reply to make certain that your reply is unique.

If you don't have a book yet, you may use the weblinks shown here:

The following topics correspond to those printed at the end of this chapter in your textbook. They are linked to the McGraw-Hill Internet database, which is updated regularly, so you can depend on reliable resources for your research.

In addition, the following sites provide different views of mitosis

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Review/Discussion/Summary

Read the summary on cell division in your text book.  There are two parts to this review:  First is to learn the parts of the cell cycle. A diagram of this cell cycle can be found on page 45 of your text. Notice that mitosis is only part of the cell cycle.  Here are some places that you can learn more about the cell cycle.  As you go through each of these sites, see if you can find something that you did not know before looking at the Cell Cycle as presented in these sites. 

  1. The Cell cycle and Mitosis
  2. The cell cycle: An interactive
  3. The Cell Cycle and Mitosis Tutorial

For you to have a good understanding of plants and plant growth, you must also learn the stages of mitosis and be able to explain what happens in each stage. Using the web sites below, compare and contrast mitosis in a plant and animal cells. How are they similar and how are they different?  As you go through each of these sites, see if you can find something that you did not know before looking at them.

  1. Plant Mitosis
  2. Mitosis: the Division of Plant and Animal Cells
  3. Mitosis
  4. Mitosis Interactive

Go to the class discussion board.  Click the thread for review/discussion/summary.  Read the postings of your classmates.  YOU MAY NOT post the same items as those posted by your classmates.  Write a report about at least three things you learned or were interesting in looking at the above URLs.  Explain in your report the difference between the Cell Cycle and Mitosis.  Also compare, in your own words, mitosis in plant and animal cells.  Although these last parts will probably be very similar to the postings of your classmates, they must be in your own words and not just a copy of what others are saying.

Your posting must be accurate and must use good grammar.

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Lab Work

Click here to see more information about the lab

In addition you can use the sites given in the Summary/review/discussion section above to see the type of things you could see if you did this assignment in a lab. 

Answer the questions in your lab book for Lab 3 Mitosis.  Be certain that in addition to answering the Review and Quiz questions you also put the labels on the diagrams since you will have labeling questions on the quiz as well as other questions. 

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Chapter Quiz

WARNING:  This quiz will be on the ENTIRE chapter, not just the last half.  There will be a 20 question quiz for each chapter.  The quiz is open book and notes, but it is timed and you will only have 15 minutes to answer the 20 quiz questions.  However, you may take the test as many times as you want.  Each time to take the quiz, you will be presented with 20 questions randomly selected from the chapter test pool.  NOTE:  For the midsemester exam you will NOT be allowed to use notes or take the exam more than once, but the questions will come from the test pools for chapters 1, 3,4, 5, and 6..  To take the chapter quiz,

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Grading Rubric:

Activity

Points awarded
Terms Quiz (1-5 depending on your score) 5
Weblinks:  Summary is grammatically correct with three specific statements , name of the reading, the URL in your summary.  -1 for each thing missing
2 additional points for the reply to another student with 2 interesting items. 1 for 1
8
2
review/discussion/summary
grammatically correct with correct subject, item stated, answer correct and complete.
-1 point for EACH item missing
5
lab work depending on quiz score  (1 - 10) 10
Chapter quiz: 20

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Summary

  1. Cells that are not dividing are in interphase, which is subdivided into three periods of intense activity that precede mitosis or division of the nucleus. Mitosis is usually accompanied by division of the rest of the cell and takes place in meristems.
  2. Mitosis is arbitrarily divided into four phases:
  3. Animal cells differ from those of higher plants in not having a wall, plastids, or large vacuoles. Also, they have keg-shaped centrioles in pairs just outside the nucleus and pinch in two instead of forming a cell plate when they divide.

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Terms

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Lab Review Questions:

  1. What changes in a cell's cytoplasm and nucleus take place during interphase?
  2. In which region of a root tip does mitosis occur.
  3. What is a spindle?
  4. What are the main events of metaphase?
  5. In which phase of mitosis do chromosomes first become distinguishable from one another?
  6. What happens to chromosomes during anaphase.
  7. Of what substance is a middle lamella composed?
  8. What becomes of the cell plate at the conclusion of mitosis?

Label these 4 diagrams including the phase in which this configuration would occur. (Look carefully at the link "Here is what you book has for mitosis" if you don't have a book yet.)

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Lab on Mitosis

Here is what you book has for mitosis

Here is what we found in our lab when we looked at the cells in the meristematic tissues at the tip of an onion root.

Here is an animation of Mitosis from http://www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/activities/cell_cycle/cell_cycle.html

Try the quiz at that site to see how you are doing in understanding Mitosis.

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