Structure and Function of Cells: Relearning Mitosis

Despite learning mitosis periodically from eighth grade living environment through years of undergraduate biology coursework, it was one topic that never stuck with me. Each time it came up, I would make sure to stare at a sheet containing the steps for long enough to memorize it for an exam, and then once the exam was over, relinquish the information from my brain space. It's an incredibly central process to life, so I can't quite pinpoint why I never took the time to truly learn it. Something about the names always felt innately confusing, although if I had devoted even a small amount of time to a mnemonic device or other handy trick, I probably wouldn't have had trouble from that point on. For my first blog post, I decided to start with the structure and function of cells, specifically the process of mitosis. I watched the CrashCourse Biology #12 video on youtube, and then investigated several ways in which to remember the phases. Below I've included my notes on the video.

Using the mnemonic device "I Picked My Apples Today" to remember the order of interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase, in conjunction with the pairing of the words prophase with prepare, metaphase with middle, anaphase with apart, and telophase with two (chromosomes), I definitely would have had an easy time remembering both the order and the events of each of the phases of mitosis. Especially with access to all of the resources available online, it's not an arduous task to find something simple that will work for you in order to remember a piece of information such as mitosis. That being said, I think it's important as educators to remember that sometimes students are lazy, like I was, and don't put in the seemingly small amount of time required to investigate something further and learn the material as opposed to quickly memorizing it. I struggle now to accept a balance between allowing students to accept some responsibility for their education and improve in their abilities to self-advocate when something isn't sticking for them the way it should, and providing a surplus of tools and resources for students so that they can easily remember information such as mitosis, that is a central part of biology and is sure to come up again throughout their science education.