I decided to use the same photo which I found for the 2nd activity as there was an extra graphic which represented the process of Meiosis beside the other two processes. I cropped out the meiosis process in order to remove distractions and irrelevant image (Dunlap and Lowenthal, 2016) in order to convey the common processes of asexual reproduction and make it more effective as a visual graphic.

The software that I used was the “Paint” application found on any Windows PC. I am very familiar with cropping images as I tend to use it very often to fit different graphics in my presentations or handouts. Though this may not be related to cropping, I have found that in a Word document, utilizing textboxes and different types of text wrapping while hiding the outline of the textbox can also achieve a similar “cropping” outcome.

Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal (2016) Getting graphic about infographics: design lessons learned from popular infographics, Journal of Visual Literacy, 35:1, 42-59, DOI: 10.1080/1051144X.2016.1205832

Activity 5-7

Figure 1. Stages of the Cell Cycle (Mitosis) (GIF)

Cell Cycle: Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cytokinesis

Cell Cycle Mnemonic

Alt Text: A GIF that rotates through diagrams and names of the Cell Cycle (Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and Cytokinesis) with a Mnemonic of each stage.

**NOTE** – I could not manipulate the WordPress platform to get both my GIF image and my Mnemonic side by side as that was my intention for the overall graphic.

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Learning Outcome:

Students are expected to know…

• mitosis –the process through which pre-existing cells make two identical copies of themselves

I decided to keep the same theme of Mitosis for students learning the unit of Biology in Science 9 to guide Activity 5-7. What I used was MS Paint on my Dell Tablet which allowed for a much easier drawing experience. The tools within MS Paint that I used included: brush, rectangular and free-form selection, crop, eraser, colours, and size (thickness of lines/eraser). What I ended up doing was creating the first stage of Mitosis which is Interphase. I then used the same template of Interphase to keep the outer circle the exact same, deleted part of the drawing, and created new graphics. I then used “Save As” to create a new file of the new stage. I repeated this process for the other stages. I then created a GIF file via https://ezgif.com/maker. Through this website, I had the GIF cycle through the stages to give a more visual representation of what happens at each stage, and the movement of the chromosomes. Since it was my first time creating something like this, I am happy with the overall result, however, I feel that I could create more sub-steps for a smoother transition in between each step as there is quite a big jump visually, for example, from Anaphase to Telophase. Overall, I think something like this would be a helpful visual tool for students because Dunlap and Lowenthal (2016) stated that “when visuals are used effectively, they serve to help people understand abstract, complicated, and complex information, especially when people are unfamiliar with the concept and do not have a pre-existing mental model to assist with the comprehension of new information.”

Additionally, with the GIF, since the learning outcome is to understand the process of cell division through Mitosis, it is extremely helpful to create a mnemonic to help students remember facts and concepts relating to the stages (Clark and Lyons, 2010). I would typically not show my sample sentence at first so that students can reinforce their own mnemonic in their minds and would show my sentence if some students required any assistance.

References

Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal (2016) Getting graphic about infographics: design lessons learned from popular infographics, Journal of Visual Literacy, 35:1, 42-59, DOI: 10.1080/1051144X.2016.1205832

Clark, Ruth C., and Chopeta Lyons. Graphics for Learning : Proven Guidelines for Planning, Designing, and Evaluating Visuals in Training Materials, Center for Creative Leadership, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=624441.

Created from trulibrary-ebooks on 2021-02-16 21:26:02.