Explaining Reproduction: Student Exercises and Teachers Guide

Let's do more than just memorize stuff !

Once again, IntuitivScience represents introductory cell biology in a highly pictorial manner. Using very simple, easy-to-reproduce diagrams, students can quickly accomplish a solid understanding of the "how-and-why" of cellular reproduction.

In this book, we explore how multicellular organisms grow, repair tissue, and pass on hereditary material. The emphasis is on the genetic information and its faithful and complete transmission between generations. We construct a simple model of the structure and role of DNA, how it is translated into protein, and how it is combined in sexual reproduction.

Parents and teachers, you get one half of the book! We provide solid pedagogical supports, recipes, and methods of presentation. Every two-page Student Exercise in this book is supported by a two-page Parent-Teacher Guide, to help you teach your child about cellular reproduction.

The unit itself is subdivided into four major sections. Each section will take a little more than one week to complete.

1. Structure and function of the plant and animal cell. Basic use of the microscope to observe the plant and animal cells. This might be review for many students.
2. The observable features of cellular reproduction, which are divided into two distinct phases. The first phase is cell reproduction, which involves the whole life cycle of one cell. The second observable phase is nuclear reproduction, which is widely known as mitosis.
3. Reproduction at the molecular level. What’s going on down there during mitosis and meiosis? What can go wrong?
4. Laboratory activities in which students examine some forms of reproduction.

At the end of each section is a thorough quiz.

Your student will learn how multi-cellular organisms grow, repair tissue, and pass on hereditary material by forms of cell division and differentiation, with an emphasis on the genetic information and its faithful and complete transmission between generations. We explore the structure and role of DNA, how the cell "reads" DNA to make proteins, and how DNA damage can result in errors in those proteins. You may also investigate how people can manipulate DNA, and the societal effects of this technology.

Michael Lattner is an author and business manager for Ross Lattner Inc. His responsibilities include contributions to new product development, production, marketing and financial matters. Mike has been teaching secondary science since 1987, initially at Nicholson Catholic College and now as Coordinator of Secondary School Reform at St. Paul Catholic Secondary School in Trenton, ON. Mike has a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology and a Master of Science degree in Forestry Ecology. Before teaching, Mike was a Wildlife Biologist and worked for the Grand River Conservation Authority in Cabridge, ON, and Ducks Unlimited Canada in Kingston, ON. In 1988 Mike travelled around the world with his wife and two daughters. They visited 19 countries and traveled more than 40,000 km. Jim Ross has more than 34 years experience in secondary science education, both in private and public school systems. In 1988, Jim Ross and Mike Lattner founded Ross Lattner Educational Consultants, a small, independent publishing company, to meet the need for high quality curriculum materials in the de-streamed common curriculum. Ross Lattner continues to publish innovative instructional strategies. In 1991, Jim moved to London ON to complete his M.Ed. thesis The Graininess of Everyday Thinking. This research investigated the cognitive structure of students' everyday language, and its relationship to their natural reasoning about physical phenomena. From 2001-2005, Jim taught the pedagogy courses in Chemistry, Physics and Intermediate Science at the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. In that capacity, he was awarded the honour of Teacher of the Year by the the Faculty of Ed. Jim has served as president of the Ontario Association of Physics Teachers, and has been an active member of STAO. He has contributed to the writing of the Ontario senior physics curriculum documents. Entering an active retirement in 2008, Jim contributed to McGraw-Hill Ryerson's Grade 9 and 10 "ON Science" texts. As he continues to study and write, he has been constructing the new approach to chemistry learning and teaching with Edvantage Press, and is an active member of the Edvantage Chemistry Interactive online community.