Module 5 Lesson 2 - 1

Get Focused

You are not the same person you were a year ago. In fact, you are not the same person you were a few seconds ago. Even as you are reading this, your cells are growing, dividing, and dying. New cells replace the old cells, leading to an eventual complete turnover of many body tissues over a few years.

In this lesson, you will identify the phases of the cell cycle and learn more about the mitosis phase of the cell cycle. You will learn how a normal cell regulates this cycle, and how some cells can exit the cycle or may even ignore these clues. You will learn to describe and explain what is occurring in the various phases of mitosis. You will learn about the importance of this type of growth and how new cells that result from mitosis relate to their parent cell.

In this lesson, these focusing questions are examined:

• What are the phases of the cell cycle?
• Do all cells have the same ability to reproduce, and does this change with age?
• How are the various phases of mitosis identified and described?
• How does mitosis maintain consistency in plants and animals?