BIOGAMETOGENESIS?!

Biology teacher Tom Hermanson writes: Honors Biology students practiced diagramming the process a cell undergoes to make reproductive cells called gametes. It is a process of "double cell division" called meiosis. This cellular dance involves a lot of highly ordered movement of chromosomes within the cell.

To help students wrap their heads around this concept, I asked them to draw it out in black and white on the slate surface of their desks, and then they walked their partners though the process. These simple models enabled them to quiz each other on chromosome number, internalize the steps, and visualize how chromosomes are passed on to offspring following certain observable patterns.