What is the strategy?
At George Mason University (GMU) all biology majors must take and pass cell biology (Cell Structure and Function) with a grade of C or better prior to taking genetics. Students are introduced to the cell cycle and meiosis in their cell biology course, however, many students enter class with misconceptions about the cell cycle and meiosis. Some of these misconceptions or misunderstandings include mitosis makes up the entire cell cycle; accurate depiction of chromosome movement during mitosis and meiosis; the difference between mitosis and meiosis. The genetics course offered at GMU begins with the cell cycle and meiosis and if students do not have a firm understanding of the topics, they can quickly fall behind. For this reason, we developed a two-part activity that will increase understanding of these two challenging concepts.