In this lesson, students will identify the changes that occur in cells during each phase of mitosis.

• Students will identify the changes that occur in cells during each phase of mitosis.
• Students will correlate these changes to the duration of time cells spend in each phase.
• While looking at a section of an onion root tip, students will count the number of cells observed in each phase of the cell cycle. They will then estimate the amount of time that a cell spends in each of the phases of the cell cycle.
• Students will watch a simulation of the process of mitosis and answer accompanying questions.

• anaphase
• cell cycle
• chromosomes
• interphase
• metaphase
• mitosis
• prophase
• nucleus
• telophase

In this lesson, students investigate the cell cycle, which includes interphase and mitosis.

As a result, students will:

• Identify the major changes that occur in a cell during each phase of mitosis by watching a simulation.
• Correlate the time a cell spends in each phase with the number of cells in a rapidly dividing region of an onion root tip undergoing each phase.
• Understand the implications of the differences between cells that have long or short cell cycles.