NEW (2016) AQA AS-Level Biology – Mitosis

This lesson is designed for the NEW AQA AS-level Biology course, particularly the ‘Cells’ module.

For more lessons designed to meet specification points for the NEW AQA A-level Biology course please visit my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience

A-Level lesson format: I teach in more of a lecture style compared to GCSE. In the majority of my A-level lessons the beginning portion of the lesson is mainly teacher-led, where students are expected to take notes onto a handout/in their books. This is then mixed in with student-led activities, as well as questions and exam prep.

You will find some of my slides have blank spaces for you to add more detail/descriptions/explanations. If you look at the ‘Notes’ section underneath each of these slides, you will find additional content which you can add in as you teach!

This lesson on mitosis begins with a review of cells, viruses, and a discussion about the differences between mitosis and meiosis.

To begin discussing mitosis, students will watch a short video describing the cell cycle and make notes on a worksheet. They can self-assess with the following slide and discuss any missing information.

The next few slides are lecture style, they teach chromosome structure and define mitosis. Students should answer the discussion question “why is mitosis such an important process in organisms?” To check their discussion, points to note can be found in the ‘notes’ section under the slide.

The lesson then defines each phase of mitosis before asking students to complete a jumbled sentence activity to synthesise their notes on the phases. The worksheet features jumbled sentences, and diagrams of the phases of mitosis for matching. The un-jumbled sentences are in the following slide so students may self-assess their worksheets.

The next section defines cytokinesis in plant and animal cells then asks students to identify the stages of mitosis by microscopic images. They should give reasons for their choices and the answers can be found in the ‘notes’ part of the slideshow. This activity is built on through a mini-whiteboard activity in which students should identify the stages of the cell cycle and explain what is happening during this stage.

The lesson ends with an exam style question which asks students to explain how mitosis leads to two identical cells. A mark scheme for this question is on the following slide.

The plenary task is to complete a sentence in their book reflecting on their learning throughout the lesson.

All resources are included. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)