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Cell Cycle and Mitosis

Author(s): Ellena McCarthy1, Lakshmi Rajkumar2, Victor Madike2, Sean Cooney3, Mark Farinha4, Lisa Feinman2, Jennifer Laing2, Vedham Karpakakunjaram3, K. Rebecca Thomas3

1. Howard Community College 2. Community College of Baltimore County 3. Montgomery College 4. Anne Arundel Community College

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Summary:
This module introduces activities that allow students to walk through the cell cycle and mitotic cell division processes. As part of the activities, students learn about and apply knowledge of chromosomal behavior to identify different stages of…

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This module introduces activities that allow students to walk through the cell cycle and mitotic cell division processes. As part of the activities, students learn about and apply knowledge of chromosomal behavior to identify different stages of mitotic cell division in plant and animal cells. They also calculate and compare mitotic indices for normally dividing and cancerous cells. Students apply quantitative and statistical concepts such as sample size, mean, standard deviation, and standard error of the mean to discuss the impact of sample sizes on interpretation of biological data (i.e., normally dividing and tumor cells, in this case).

Licensed under CC Attribution 4.0 International according to these terms

Version 1.0 - published on 18 Jul 2024 doi:10.25334/GJ8Q-7Z79 - cite this

Keywords

  1. introductory biology
  2. Quantitative reasoning
  3. Interdisciplinary STEM
  4. quantitative biology
  5. interdisciplinary
  6. quantitative skills
  7. cell function
  8. cell cycle
  9. mitosis
  10. Cell Division
  11. Mitotic Index
  12. calculating means
  13. tumor
  14. NIQB
  15. C2. Data and Graphs
  16. C4. mathematical models
  17. C3. Statistical Analysis
  18. standard error
  19. mitotic phase
  20. interphase

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  5. Open Science and Education Practices Ontology
Contents:
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Description

This module is designed for an introductory biology course and can be completed in approximately 60-75 minutes.

Students are expected to complete the pre-module work, review, and come prepared with the prior foundational knowledge of:

  • Cell cycle and mitotic cell division
  • Calculation of mean, standard deviation, standard error, and mitotic index (MI)
  • Basic microscopy

The pre-module work has two parts. In Part I of the pre-module work, the students will learn to identify cells in different stages in the cell cycle (Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, etc.), count the number of cells that are dividing (Mitotic phase) stages in a field of view and use that data to calculate the mitotic index. The Part II, the students will practice calculating mean, SD and SEM and discuss the effect of sample sizes on these statistical components. An instructor’s version of the pre-module work, with answer key, is shared as “Instructors Only” resources.

In the classroom activity, students will apply their prior knowledge to identify different stages of the cell cycle using instructor assigned, high-resolution images. The students will collect data and calculate the mitotic index from the assigned images, in addition to calculating MI, with provided data, for normal and tumor tissues. Further, students will compare the means, standard deviations, and standard errors for small and large sample sizes (group data vs. class data) to discuss effect of sample size on data interpretations and observing for patterns of variations in a population. This activity will help scaffold students’ quantitative skills, such as interpreting data sets, data visualization, using mathematical models of biological systems to make inferences about natural phenomena, and making statistical inferences by comparing different sample sizes.

During the in-class activity, the instructor should record the data in an excel worksheet. The template worksheet is preset to calculate the means and standard error for each group and also for the class, as a whole. This data could be used to discuss the relationship between standard error and the sample size and the relevance of sample sizes to discuss the biological phenomenon and variations across different tissue samples.

This module was developed and implemented as part of the NEXUS Institute for Quantitative Biology (NIQB), which is a collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (NSF-IUSE) initiative. NIQB is a collaboration between University of Maryland, Baltimore County (DUE-1821274), Anne Arundel Community College (DUE-1821179), Community College of Baltimore County (DUE-1821249), Howard Community College (DUE-1820903), and Montgomery College (DUE-1821169).

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