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Biology
Mitosis Internet Investigation
Chapter 8
Go to Mr. Sullivan’s website and follow the links to “Mitosis – Online Onion Root
Tips”. Once there, click on the “onion root tips” link in the upper left hand
corner of the page.
1. Why do we use root tips to look at phases of the cell cycle instead of
perhaps the stems or leaves of the plant?
Click “next”. Draw a rough sketch of what cells from each phase of mitosis will
look like.
Interphase
Anaphase
Prophase
Metaphase
Telophase
Click “next”. After reading the directions, copy the table into the space below.
(% cells = [total # in phase/total # of cells] x 100)
Analysis
3. How many cells did you identify correctly? Which phase did you miss the
most? Why do you think that happened?
4. What percentage of cells were in each of the different phases?
a. Interphase
b. Prophase
c. Metaphase
d. Anaphase
e. Telophase
5. Create a pie chart of the percentages of the cells in the different stages of
the cell cycle so that each stage is represented, and the pie chart totals
100%.
Pie Chart Key
Pie Chart
6. What are some reasons that you may have observed a low number of
cells undergoing mitosis as compared to interphase?
7. Based on your data, what can you infer about the relative length of
time an onion root tip cell spends in each stage of mitosis? Be sure to
discuss each stage!