Melissa Cyfers

Cyfers’ innovating teaching idea, “Cell Size and Karyotypes,” students explore the limits of cell growth by first constructing and analyzing simulated cell models using a formulated agar to learn how cells obtain nutrients and excrete waste. The data obtained by measuring the cell's surface area and calculating volume will be used to form conclusions regarding size limitations imposed by diffusion. Students will then move on to investigate how organisms develop from a single cell. Onion root tips will be used to determine rate of mitosis using the effect of mitogen to complete a statistical analysis. Genetic diseases will be explored as students analyze karyotypes to determine chromosomal anomalies resulting in improper segregation of genetic material during meiosis. In the final investigation, Cyfers wants students to be able to measure crossover frequencies during meiosis in the fungus Sordoria fimicola. The final summative assessment will be a Green Screen production of the outcomes with students acting as lab experts to explain Findings.