The Essential Guide to Observing Mitosis in Education
With top tips, worksheets and a practical activity!
Looking at living cells allows students to see mitosis in action. By actively growing root tips of garlic we can easily observe mitosis.
Garlic roots quickly in water and produces large roots which are easy to manipulate for this procedure.
Learn more about investigating mitosis with a practical activity in the essential guide!
The Importance of Mitosis
Mitosis is an important part of the cell cycle, where chromosomes are replicated and duplicated, finally separating into 2 distinct nuclei and then 2 separate and identical cells.
Since the total number of chromosomes is always maintained this process is also called equational division.
All cells replicate this way as part of growth and repair, and students learn about mitosis and the cell cycle in GCSE and A level biology, culminating in a practical at A level to stain dividing root cells in order to observe the stages of mitosis.
As a technician, you will need to grow and possibly prepare and fix the roots, as well as make various buffers and stains as required.
