Cell Division Supervisor: A Web ActivityName ______

READ ALL THESE DIRECTIONS BEFORE YOU BEGIN

  • Click on “Play the Control of the Cell Cycle Game” and then, before you click on “Enter,” be sure to click on the cells towards the center a few times. Note the phases (G1, S, G2, M) as each cell duplicates its DNA and then divides.
  • Later, on the fifth screen, you enter the nucleus by clicking on the door.
  • Do not answer any of the following until you have mastered going through the whole program at least once.
  • As you go through the program, read the script in the “TV screen” AND try to watch what’s happening on the screen at the same time. It’s kind of hard to do both at once, so you may have to go through the game a few times.

Answer these questions:

  1. For what do you need new cells? ______
  2. How many new ones do you make a minute?______
  3. How often do the cells of these organs/tissues divide (not very, occasionally, very often)?

  • Skin ______
  • Liver ______
  • Stomach ______
  • Intestine______
  • Bone marrow______
  • Nerve______
  • Muscle ______

  1. What signals cells to start dividing?
  1. What are the two key molecules that control cell division? ______
  2. What’s the first thing that has to happen after a cell dies? ______
  3. What two things are checked at checkpoint 1?
  1. How much does the cell size have to increase? ______
  2. What’s the second thing that has to happen (screen on right)?
  1. What is the third thing that has to happen?
  1. What are the three things that happen at this checkpoint?
  1. What is the fourth thing that has to happen?
  1. What is checked at this checkpoint (#3)? ______
  2. What is the fifth and final thing that happens?
  1. What might mutations lead to?
  1. What happens if the CDK and cyclin “supervisors” aren’t working properly?
  1. View the movie. How is real cell division different from animated versions?

If you have extra time, go to the beginning of the Cell Cycle Game and hit the “Back” button. Find “Make Copies of DNA Molecule Game” and play it.