Modeling Mitosis with Oreo Cookies 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction

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Oreo Cookie Mitosis


The problem was: What do I do with the students the day before Winter Recess?

We were about to finish the Reproduction and Development Unit but needed one or two days of review before the test.  I know a lot of teachers like to show a video but the way I see it you are essentially telling the students that "today isn't an important day, you aren't important to me, let's just take it easy."

I was looking for a fun activity that would help the students review and would entertain them and keep them out of trouble for 40 minutes.  For whatever reason I ended up googling: Mitosis Cookies and found resources and ideas on the following websites:

I then took parts from each site and created this handout for my 9th grade Biology students: Click here for the handout





oreo cookies provided by students
They brought in plenty of cookies, and I provided the colored sprinkles, plastic dixie cups, toothpicks, and construction paper.

colored sprinkles


It was a huge hit!  The kids loved it, they were ALL engaged in the lesson and were able to eat the cookies when they were done.

You can see the pictures of what they produced below.
















What fun activities do your students enjoy before a vacation?

originally posted on ballinwithballing.blogspot.com



Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2014 at 12:08 PM

    This is a great idea! The day before break we were midway into our body systems unit, so we had a debate about if prisoners should be allowed to donate organs(ny times ran an interesting article series about this). I agree it's important to come up with engaging activities before breaks and avoid movies. Thanks for sharing, Amy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. loreescienceOctober 12, 2016 at 7:05 PM

    Thanks for a great activity!

    ReplyDelete

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