Meet a cell
Every cell has a nucleus, the "brain" of the cell. Inside are chromosomes: squiggly strings that hold the recipe for making you.
Before a cell can split, it must copy its chromosomes so each new cell gets a full recipe book. 📖📖
The six steps of splitting
Press Next (or the numbers) to watch the cell go through each step.
Step 1
The whole story at a glance
Quick quiz! 🧠
1. What does a cell make MORE of before it splits?
2. In which step do chromosomes line up in the middle?
3. When mitosis is finished, how many cells are there?
4. Are the two new cells the same or different?
Big words, small meanings
- Cell
- The tiny building block that all living things are made of.
- Nucleus
- The control centre inside a cell that keeps the chromosomes safe.
- Chromosome
- A string of DNA, the recipe that tells the cell what to do.
- Spindle
- Tiny ropes that pull the chromosomes apart.
- Mitosis
- The dance a cell does to become two identical cells.
🌟 Why does it matter? Mitosis is how you grow taller, how a scraped knee heals, and how a lizard grows back its tail!