3. at what phase of meiosis is the number of chromosomes per cell doubled? (think carefully about this.) what happens after that so that the number of chromosomes per cell does not end up being higher?

The chromosomes actually double BEFORE meiosis - during S-phase (end of interphase).

You don't get too many chromosomes because meiosis has two parts - in part 1 you have the doubling of the chromosomes before (during S-phase) but as soon as the 2 daughter cells are formed at the end of meiosis 1 (telophase 1), the cells go straight into another division cycle (meiosis 2) WITHOUT duplicating the chromosomes...so you end up with HALF of the number of chromosomes you started with.