As i was looking through Biology blogs the one that caught my interest was “The Biology Corner,” which is for students and teachers. Last semester i took Biology 202 and learned about ATP synthase if i had known about this website it would of been helpful for me. The good thing about this Blog is it’s open to the public not just for the classroom students.

The teacher set up photos and allows us to check out the Flickr Photostream to view those images. The teacher says Flickr is a great resource for organizing photos and allows the teacher to store photos that other teachers might find useful, like the images of cheek cells and mitosis. I think this is a great idea becuase i believe students are visual learners and in Biology there are so many structures so pictures and videos is a plus for students to learn with. The teacher also has galleries located at Google’s Picasaweb. The Biology Cornor also has a Facebook where the teacher posts up things such as helpful video links. The Biology Corner offers this to help students learn about the cell cycle and has a quiz at the end which i find very helpful for students. When i become a teacher i would like to post up helpful tools such as this one for my students to have access to.

Chapter 6 – The Cell Cycle

Why Do Cells Divide?

Interphase (longest part of the cell cycle)

Mitosis
– nuclear division, number of chromosomes remains the same

Lets Break It Down

Interphase(technically not part of mitosis, but it is included in the cell cycle)Cell is in a resting phase, performing cell functions DNA replicates (copies)

Organelles double in number, to prepare for division
ProphaseSpindle formsCentrioles move to opposite poles Chromosomes become visible
MetaphaseChromosomes line up along the equator
AnaphaseCentromeres divideChromatids separate and move to opposite poles
TelophaseNuclear membrane forms around each group of chromosomesChromosomes unwindCytokinesis begins

Cytokinesis

The process by which the cytoplasm divides and one cell becomes two individual cells. The process is different in plants and animals

Animals – cell pinches inward

Plants – a new cell wall forms between the two new cells

Practice Quiz on Mitosis

The Biology Corner wants students to not focus on just memorzing facts. The teacher explains how we all have our sacred cows – the topics and ideas we feel are absolutely important for students to know and leaving them out would be akin to a crime, these are non negotiable and you can always identify a sacred cow by the fervor with which a teacher defends the teaching of the topic. For instance, my sacred cow is evolution. I would feel any biology class would be incomplete and disjointed without its inclusion.

This pictures reveals how we as humans have evolved and technology is an important learning and teaching tool.

Our job is to help them be able to read and critically evaluate this information.

    Students don’t need to know everything, but they do need to have the tools to find and evaluate all the information that is so readily available to them.