How-To-Do-It
Role-Playing Mitosis
Mark A. Wyn
Biology instruction is effective when
students are actively involved in the
learning process (Igelsrud & Leonard
1988). Therefore, biology teachers need
to reduce their reliance on the lecture
mode of teaching and use strategies
that encourage student inquiry/discovery, hands-on experience, and
interactive group work in order to
provide concrete learning situations
(Costenson & Lawson 1986; Igelsrud
& Leonard 1988, Lapp et al. 1989).
For example, in using sweat socks to
illustrate nuclear division, Oakley
(1994) demonstrates a teacher’s commitment to actively involving students
in the process of learning. She says,
‘‘The more I teach, the more I realize
the importance of having a student be
‘physical’ in the learning process . . .
The more senses involved in learning,
the easier it is for the student to learn
the material.’’
Role-playing is a useful method for
getting students involved in their own
learning. Some teachers apply the roleplay method to help students understand abstract biological concepts. For
example, Stencel and Barkoff (1993)
teach protein synthesis through student role-play. In their role-play,
Stencel and Barkoff choreograph protein synthesis to accompaniment with
Tchaikovsky’s ‘‘Dance of the Sugar
Plum Fairy.’’
Other teachers employ role-playing
to engage students in problem-solving
situations that integrate science and
society. Cherif and Somervill (1995)
use role-playing in their classrooms to
maximize learning in a setting where
students simulate competing community and industrial interests. Students
portray city council members, community representatives and industrial delegates debating whether or not to
build a biotechnology company in
M a r k A . W yn , M .A ., is a s ci en ce
teacher at Fremont Middle School,
Fremont, MI 49412. Steven J. Stegink,
Ph.D., is Professor of Science Education and Biology at Calvin College,
Grand Rapids, MI 49546.
Steven J. Stegink
their community. In another classroom, debate about nuclear power
occurs as students role-play Senate
Energy Committee Hearings on a proposal to build a nuclear power plant
in a community (Arce 1992).
In an effort to involve our students
actively in learning biology, we
designed a role-play for mitosis. The
role-play was easy to conduct, did not
require extravagant materials, and got
students involved physically in the
learning process. We tailored the activity to fit various objectives. By varying
the amount of material introduced, we
altered the activity to meet different
intellectual levels with particular
groups of students. For example, with
a middle school class the objective
was to have the students describe in
writing and with pictures the process
of genetic material duplication and cellular division after the role-play. In
high school and college freshmen biology classes, students showed mastery
in understanding mitosis by making
correct drawings (in structure and in
sequence) while using correct terms
to describe and label the processes
of mitosis.
be used. Overhead bib-type, tie-on jerseys can be borrowed from the athletic
or physical education department of
the school. Alternatively, a teacher may
choose to purchase some pullover jerseys for permanent addition to the biology classroom. Students could bring
their favorite Womens’ National Basketball Association or National Basketball Association jerseys to class and a
teacher might use the jerseys to make
necessary paired-combinations from
the student contributions.
Students without jerseys form a
large ring (a circle of 10 to 20 students
depending on class size, minus students with colored jerseys). The student pair(s) wearing the athletic jerseys
enter the ring. The instructor explains
that the students forming the circle
are the boundary of a cell, the cell
membrane. The students wearing the
jerseys carry information that controls
activities in the cell; those students
represent chromosomes containing
genes. Together all the students represent a normal mature cell, a parent
cell (Figure 2).
Setting the Stage
The instructor poses a problem for
the parent cell: produce another cell
like yourself, that although smaller in
size, could control the same activities
that you control—this is the key question of the activity (Figure 3). After
some discussion and trial and error at
regrouping, the class makes two circles
of students (two new cell membranes
are represented). But there is half the
number of students wearing jerseys
inside each circle compared to the
number in the parent cell (initial single
circle). Here the teacher guides the
class toward proposing that the students with jerseys need to be doubled.
The teacher should make sure that
students suggest that the doubling
could occur in the parent cell circle
before the two new cell circles form
(Figure 1). Additionally, students
might suggest that the doubling of
To introduce role-playing mitosis, at
least one same-sex pair of students
(two girls or two boys) in the class
are given identically colored athletic
jerseys — the number of students
selected to wear jerseys can be adjusted
depending on the class size and the
number of different pairs of jerseys
available. If dealing with more than
one pair of students, it is important to
obtain as many pairs of different colored jerseys as possible, so that many
students can be involved in the ‘‘moving’’ part of the procedure. We recommend starting with four students, two
female and two male, each person in
a pair wearing a jersey color similar
to each other but different from the
other pair of students (Figure 1). For
example, red and yellow jerseys may
378 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 62, NO. 5, MAY 2000
Continuing the Role-play
Activity
Figure 1. Tenth-grade students role-play sister chromatids in a cell. Together the
two girls with light jerseys are a single chromosome from one pair; together the
two boys with dark jerseys are a single chromosome from a second pair. The circle
of classmates simulates a cell membrane. Note: Students who simulate homologous
chromosomes during mitosis should not be linked together. A teacher should be
careful not to introduce a misconception that homologs join physically during
mitosis (Merten & Walker 1992).
jerseys occur after the new cells form.
This suggestion provides a good
springboard for talking with students
about a different model or alternative
hypothesis for cell reproduction.
The term mitosis is introduced after
the class is guided toward the accepted
hypothesis that chromosomes duplicate and separate in a parent cell
before two new virtually identical
cells (daughter cells) form. The term
cytokinesis might be introduced after
mitosis to differentiate the duplication
and separation of chromosomes from
the physical separation of the parent
cell membrane needed to form the
daughter cell membranes. Following
the term introduction(s), jerseys are
redistributed to other students in the
class and the class practices mitosis,
at least once, maybe more depending
on student interest.
Following the introductory roleplaying mitosis activity the instructor
may extend the lesson, according to
her objectives. During the lesson extension a teacher may introduce terms
such as homologous chromosomes, sister
chromatids, centromere, etc. Having prelabeled cards for students to hold or
drape with string over their heads is
useful in linking the structure a student is role-playing with the word
symbol given by biologists. Wearing
the labels and calling out what is happening and where structures are, students do more role-plays. This
extended mode may be elaborated to
almost any level, depending on the
teacher and class.
After a few rounds of practice either
in the introductory or extended mode,
students return to their classroom or
seats and watch a presentation of timelapse photography of mitosis in living
cells. Commercially available films,
videotapes or laserdiscs are possible
formats for the presentations (we use
an old-faithful Ealing film loop, Mitosis
in the Endosperm of Haemanthus katerinaes). Given the amount of terminology an instructor wishes to introduce
and reinforce, students may return to
the role-playing mitosis activity to
form fixed phases of mitosis. Either
teacher or students may call out phases
of mitosis for simulation.
Students close the lesson by summarizing visually and in writing the
teacher-introduced terms, phrases and
events encountered during the rounds
of role-play. We think written and
visual summary by students is essential. This connects the physical activities of the role-play with the mental
images constructed by students as they
did the role-play.
A student-prepared Mitosis Booklet
is one method we use for creating a
permanent record for assessment and
evaluation. The booklet contains at
least four 8.5⬙ ⳯ 11⬙ sheets of paper.
The first sheet has Mitosis Booklet typed
or handwritten on it. On the second
sheet, a student writes the teacherselected objectives for role-playing
mitosis followed by a personally written statement explaining how the parent cell solved the problem to make
two daughter cells that, although
smaller in diameter, look and act like
the parent cell. On a following page,
titled Mitosis Vocabulary, a student
writes the terms associated with mitosis. These terms are those introduced
by the teacher and by the time-lapse
photography video, as the teacher
chooses. On the fourth page a student
draws five or more different pictures
that show the structures and events
ROLE-PLAYING MITOSIS 379
occurring in a parent cell as simulated
during role-play mitosis. The pictures
should at least have labels identifying
cell membrane and chromosomes. Other
labels could be required at the discretion of the teacher. For additional reinforcement, a teacher may ask students
to write descriptions of chromosome
activity alongside the drawings. Students are encouraged to work, think
and talk quietly in small groups as
they each complete individual booklets. During student summary time,
the teacher circulates through the class
assessing the quality and quantity of
work being done. The teacher can
check students’ written and visual
descriptions of mitosis while answering and asking questions.
Concluding Comments
Role-play mitosis was first used by
one of the authors as a preservice
teaching project with two separate
middle school science classes.
Although the preservice instructor had
only a few weeks of experience as an
aide in the two middle school classrooms where the role-play was done,
classroom management was not a
problem and the regular classroom
teacher judged the activity successful.
The activity was completed during a
usual 50-minute class period.
Subsequently, role-playing mitosis
was used successfully with tenth-grade
high school and freshman-level college
students. During a directed student
teaching assignment the role-play was
done with tenth-grade biology students. The classroom teacher who
mentored the student teacher had nine
years’ experience in biology teaching
and was impressed with the activity
and enthusiastic about using it in following years. Interestingly, during the
high school experience, quiz scores
from different biology classes taught
by the student teacher correlated with
differences in method of instruction
u s e d . O n i d e n t i c a l q ui zz es th at
included short answer, matching, and
drawing questions, a class that roleplayed mitosis performed better than
a class that did not experience roleplay mitosis as part of the instructional
strategy. The mean score for the roleplay class (25 students) was 34.5 out
of 40; the mean score for the non-roleplaying class (27 students) was 29.3
out of 40. Although the sampling was
small and the purpose of the role-play
was not to test the significance of that
method on student learning, the difference in class scores was encouraging.
The enthusiasm and testimony of the
regular classroom teacher, coupled
Figure 2. A circle of students around students wearing colored athletic jerseys
simulates a normal cell.
Figure 3. Instructor (MAW) explains the problem that the normal cell faces: reproduce another cell like yourself having the ability to control and carry out the same
functions in each new cell as in the normal cell before division.
with the difference in quiz scores, gave
credibility to a conclusion that roleplay mitosis had a positive effect on
students’ understanding of mitosis.
In our own classrooms (in high
school and in college), we continue to
use the role-playing mitosis activity.
Whether in a laboratory setting with
college freshmen enrolled in an introductory majors-level biology course or
380 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 62, NO. 5, MAY 2000
in a tenth-grade biology classroom, the
activity is successful and fun to do
(Figure 4). Of course, there is hesitancy
by some students to get out of their
seats and join hand-to-hand as a ‘‘cell
membrane,’’ but with light-hearted
humor and teacher encouragement, the
class does the activity and experiences
mitosis as concretely as possible from
a problem-solving perspective.
References
Figure 4. Students have fun role-playing mitosis.
Mitosis is not easy for students to
understand concretely. Teachers
employ different techniques and materials in helping students learn mitosis.
Paper-and-pencil strategies during
which students portray cells with colored-pencil drawn chromosomes help
identify student misunderstandings
and misconceptions (Bajema 1984;
Merten & Walker 1992). Learning
cycles that use picture cut-outs to teach
the logical sequence of mitosis are
available (Daniely 1990). Lawson
(1991) recommends a learning cycle
with living material prepared for
microscopy. Some instructors direct
students to pull Pop-It Bead娃 strings
on a floor or table-top in a type of
hands-on method for simulating mitosis. A commercially produced kit,
Chromosome Simulation BioKit, is available from Carolina Biological Supply
Company (Burlington, NC 27215).
Although a teacher must weigh the
usefulness of an activity against class-
room constraints of time, space, class
size and interest, we think that the
advantages of role-playing mitosis
should be seriously considered. Introducing mitosis to students through a
role-play gives students a concrete
experience that will help them appreciate the logical sequence of mitosis. We
suggest that students make better use
of prepared slides, videos and worksheets after physically experiencing the
sequence of mitosis and how it provides for duplication of a parent cell
to daughter cells. The role-play activity
provides students with a sensory experience of the events in mitosis. The
sensory experience is reinforced in
writing and in pictures prepared by
students. Another advantage of the
activity is facilitation of group learning, both in the actual role-playing
activity and during completion of summary record booklets.
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