Meiosis in Action!!! – Expanding the Gene Pool, One Cell at a Time

My classmate and friend, Monica Kastilani worked with me to create this project on meiosis, one of the most essential processes of cell division. Meiosis is not only important for sexual reproduction, but it also increases genetic diversity among sexually reproductive organisms to reduce mutations as well as help organisms to survive. Meiosis is very and I mean very different from mitosis. While both are processes of division, they both have very different outcomes needed for the body to function. Mitosis for example is key to growth and development of an individual while meiosis is key for sexual reproduction. Mitosis also occurs in haploid and diploid cells while meiosis occurs only in diploid cells. In addition, mitosis results in 2 daughter cells that are genetically identical to the parent and meiosis results in 4 daughter cells that genetically different from the parent.

As displayed in the video, we showed the two sets of meiosis which involved prophase I & II, prometaphase I & II, metaphase I & II, anaphase I & II, and telophase I & II. We mentioned interphase just to give a perspective on the life of a cell, but note that interphase is not a part of meiosis. It is a time period where the cell grows, develops, and carries out basic functions for the body. We tried to think of how we could use color and objects to give life to the animation. We used pipe cleaners to represent one of meiosis’s very important features, chromosomes, clay to represent membranes and envelopes, and used pipe cleaners and string for other essential parts such as aster and mitotic spindle.

I really enjoyed working on this project because I really learned how to use stop-motion and it was fun to be creative and spend time making an animation that would help us understand meiosis better. I also learned how to manage time and be more efficient in a group especially because this project required much time and effort to create coordination between the phases displayed.