This task has been designed to be used by students, parents, and teachers in distance and home learning. Students engage in science and engineering practices to figure out what happens in cells that make them grow the way they do.
Today's task, How are cancer cells different from normal cells ?, creates an opportunity for students to look at examples of how normal cells divide and compare them to how cancer cells divide. In today's Daily Do, we use the phenomenon of a teen diagnosed with Stage III melanoma (see video below) to prompt students to think about cancer differently than they have in the past.
Cancer is a topic often covered in high school biology class at the end of a unit on cells as an example of what happens when cells do not divide properly or divide uncontrollably without regulatory mechanisms. However, when used as a phenomena, it can allow for students to use cancer as a vehicle for understanding cell division.