Mississippi Science FB.3.7
The Standard
- FB.3
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how the structure of living organisms supports the essential functions of life.
Enrichment: Research and orally communicate the possible outcomes of a failure of mitosis (cancer) or meiosis (nondisjunction).
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Organization and Energy in Living Systems
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students research how loss of cell division control can lead to cancer and how nondisjunction can produce gametes with extra or missing chromosomes. They explain possible outcomes aloud, using reliable sources.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how repeated, uncontrolled division may form a tumor without claiming every mitosis error causes cancer. They can show how nondisjunction changes a gamete’s chromosome count and explain a possible outcome, such as trisomy 21.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may say cancer comes from meiosis or that nondisjunction creates tumors. They may think every mitosis error causes cancer, or that every gamete with an extra chromosome results in a live birth.
How to Assess It
- Ask each student for a 45-second oral answer: “How could failed cell division control lead to cancer, and how could nondisjunction lead to trisomy 21? Name your source.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use colored paper chromosome pairs to model normal meiosis and nondisjunction, then count the chromosomes in each gamete.
Ask pairs to write two sentences answering, “Why can a body-cell division error affect tissues, while a gamete error may affect an offspring?”
Give pairs cause-and-effect cards for checkpoint failure, uncontrolled division, tumor, nondisjunction, extra chromosome, and trisomy 21 to sort into two chains.
Have pairs use NCI and MedlinePlus pages to prepare a one-minute, patient-friendly explanation of cancer or trisomy 21.
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