Chromosomes: the missing link - young people's understanding of mitosis, meiosis, and fertilisation

This paper considers school students' understanding of the processes of cell division and fertilisation towards the end of their compulsory science education. The difficulties which students have in understanding the purposes and products of these processes are discussed, and the origins of some of these problems are identified. In particular, it notes the widespread lack of understanding of the physical link between chromosomes and genetic material, and the relationship between the behaviour of chromosomes at cell division and the continuity of genetic information - both within and between organisms.