This past week we studied meiosis (check out this cool animation), the cell division that results in gametes--aka sperm and eggs. It's because of meiosis that we have such genetic variety and that no two people look exactly alike. Twins are a different story. Anyway, after viewing The Meiosis Square Dance video (see below), my students learned a dance to tell the story of cell division in a fun way.
Each student represents a single chromosome, and for part of the time they are paired up with their identical chromosome, which the cell produces prior to cell division. The boys are wearing white to represent the paternal chromosomes, and the girls are wearing purple to represent the maternal chromosomes. This is not a traditional square dance... I choreographed it after watching an hour's worth of YouTube square dance tutorials. And it's not a 100% accurate representation of meiosis, but we wanted to keep it simple, and focus on the movement of the chromosomes during cell division.
OK, if I haven't scared you away with all my nerdy science talk, watch the video below (make sure the volume is up). You'll probably have to watch it a couple times to catch all the kids' freestyle moves...
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