Meiosis Movies! (Science 9)

Students filming their video

Building a cell with yarn, play dough, toothpicks & construction paper

Students creating the cells before the film shoot

In Science 9, students worked to document the stages of Meiosis by creating cells (using play dough, yarn and construction paper). They then wrote a script to document the process and recorded it on video. Observations from the lesson:

1. The groups of 4 worked well. Students who were shy did not have to be on camera. (Teacher noted after ward that next time he would ask that each group member do the voice over for ONE of the stages).

2. Students were on-task and engaged for the entire hour and 15 min.

3. The teacher designed the groups but also took student preferences into account.

4. Students were not given access to the cameras until their scripts were checked and their cells were designed.

5. The process itself of making the videos was so successful the final videos didn't actually end up being that important.

6. On the unit exam a week or so later, the class did very well on the stages of meiosis. (Note: on a future post the teacher will describe how he designed an active component to the the test and had students actually build the cells and verbally explain the process during the test itself).