LearningLabs

Programme

Aims

Cell division is presented in upper-secondary cell biology syllabi as a well-understood process, without digging deeper into detail about its fundamental role in the development of a single cell to multi-cellular organisms and what happens when the division mechanism goes wrong leading to disease.

A New Look at the Cell Cycle cross-links various areas in post-16 curricula: cell division, diversity and control; genes and genome technologies; human genetics and disease. This LearningLAB will take a look at some of the unanswered questions about cell division:

• How are the sister chromatids held together?
• How are they attached to the spindle?
• How do the chromatids move to opposite ends of the cell before the cell divides in the middle?

In other words, how are the events that lead to a cell’s division executed in a precisely defined sequential order, and what surveillance mechanisms (checkpoints) exist that only allow one step to proceed after the previous has been completed successfully? This cycle of events has to be tightly controlled in response to the cell’s state and environment. Loss of regulation can lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation as it is the case, for example, in cancer cells.

We will also look at the model organisms used in cell cycle research and in the newly developing field of astrobiology.

This LearningLAB is being run in collaboration with Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). Learning and Teaching Scotland is an education agency of the Scottish Government. The major parts of its role are to lead on curriculum development and to support improvement and innovation in the school education system. LTS actively supports teacher professional development and works with many partners to enhance teaching and learning for Scottish students. This study visit to EMBL will assist with the achievement of the Scottish Government's Science and Engineering Action Plan.

Throughout the 2 day-course teachers will:

• Update their knowledge on cell division, and get a general overview of the importance of the cell cycle and the current state of the research on this fundamental biological process.
• Look at key model organisms that are being used to understand the regulatory mechanisms of the cell cycle. By understanding more about the cell cycle, it will expand our knowledge on how organisms develop, and what can go wrong during development, aging and disease.
• Work alongside research scientists
• Experience the interdisciplinarity of modern life science research, which brings together biologists, biochemists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians and computational scientists.
• Exchange ideas with peers on ways to improve life science education in school and motivate more pupils to take up science studies at school and university.

Topics

Scientific seminars:

• The yeast cell cycle – a model organism
• Flow cytometry
• Improving out understanding of the cell cycle with electron tomography

Hands-on activities:

• The yeast cell cycle experiment
• Cell cycle demos – watching cells divide in real time
• Analysing the cells cycle by flow cytometry

Educational seminars and exchange:

• Science in School
• Teachers exchange and ELLS Teachers Network

Educational resources:

• Teaching resources for the classroom

Contacts

The European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS)
EMBL
Meyerhofstraße 1
69117 Heidelberg
Germany
ells@embl.org

Julia Willingale-Theune
Tel. +49 6221 387 8104
julia.willingale@embl.de

Philipp Gebhardt
Tel. +49 6221 387 8252
philipp.gebhardt@embl.de