The exercise presented here was developed for the Cellular, Developmental Biology Course at Beloit College as part of a research project on modeling the cell cycle. It was first presented in ASCB's 2005 poster and subsequently as part of ASCB's 2007 Education Initiative.

It has also been used in professional development workshops for faculty and graduate student training in computational biology. It was initially designed to be completed within a 2 hr. lab period.

A generalized version of the Cell Cycle Syllabus and directions for student research papers are also available.

The exercise assumes a minimal understanding of cell cycle mechanisms, an ability to create subtraction equations and declarative sentences. These basics skills and materials allow for the introduction of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Knowledge of ODE's are not required to complete the exercises.

If you have questions or need additional assistance with these exercises, contact Dr. Raquell Holmes.