Ideas about science
As well as testing your knowledge and understanding of biology, the exam papers will also assess your understanding of 'Ideas about Science' (B7).
Questions on 'Ideas about Science' will appear throughout both exams papers (Breadth and Depth), and at both Foundation tier and Higher tier.
There are four main aspects to 'Ideas about Science'. These are:
- Planning experiments to collect data (including writing hypotheses and predictions, selecting apparatus and describing methods, controlling factors, and working safely).
- Processing and analysing data (including calculating averages and other statistics, presenting data graphically, identifying patterns and trends, evaluating results and methods, and interpreting data to draw appropriate conclusions).
- Developing scientific explanations (including ideas about correlation and cause, peer review, and the use of models in science).
- The impacts of applications of science (including positive and negative impacts on people, other organisms and the environment, and ideas about risk and ethics).
Your understanding of 'Ideas about Science' will be assessed, usually as part of questions that also assess your understanding of biological concepts. There won't be a separate 'Ideas about Science' section in the papers. This is because understanding how scientists work, and how science impacts our lives, is not separate from biology - it's part of it.
When you're revising biology also think about 'Ideas about Science'. How did scientists, or how could you, collect data and evidence about the biological phenomena you're studying? How were the scientific explanations of those phenomena developed? And how do they impact us in the real world?
These questions have been written by Bitesize consultants as suggestions to the types of questions that may appear in an exam paper.
Sample question 1 - Foundation
Question
Describe how plants get glucose.
State why they need it. [4 marks]
This question requires you to make the link between photosynthesis and respiration.
- plants use light [1 mark]
- to carry out the process of photosynthesis [1 mark]
- which makes glucose that can be used in respiration [1 mark]
- to gain energy for the plant in the form of ATP [1 mark].
Sample question 2 - Foundation
Question
Explain why the cell division process of meiosis is important for the survival of a species. [5 marks]
This question links your understanding of how DNA codes for characteristics, how sexual reproduction causes variation in individuals, and how variation between the individuals in a species allows that species to face environmental change and survive.
Any five from:
- cell division by meiosis creates gametes [1 mark]
- these are used for sexual reproduction which introduces variation in individuals [1 mark]
- gametes have half the DNA of a body cell [1 mark]
- two gametes fuse in fertilisation and their DNA is mixed [1 mark]
- this creates an individual with a mixture of characteristics from the mother and father [1 mark]
- the greater the variation in a population the more likely that some individuals survive to reproduce if the environment changes [1 mark]
- if individuals survive to reproduce then the species will continue to survive [1 mark]
Sample question 3 - Higher
Question
Suggest why gibberellins stimulate the bolting process in plants when the conditions are cold or there is a lack of water in the environment. [4 marks]
- Bolting is when a plant produces flowers. [1 mark]
- Flowers are the reproductive organs of plants. [1 mark]
- If the conditions are harsh and the plant is going to die then the production of flowers means it might be able to pass on its genes. [1 mark]
- This is an attempt to reproduce before death and continue the species. [1 mark]
Sample question 4 - Higher
Question
In terms of proteins being involved in the control of mitosis, explain why a mutation in DNA may cause cells to divide uncontrollably. [4 marks]
Here you must link together your knowledge of DNA mutations and protein synthesis and apply it in the context of controlling the rate of the cell division process of mitosis.
- A mutation is a change in the sequence of nucleotides in DNA. [1 mark]
- When the DNA is read to make mRNA in transcription, the mRNA will have the mutation. [1 mark]
- In translation the mutated mRNA will code for a mutated protein. [1 mark]
- This mutated protein may not function correctly to stop cells from dividing by mitosis when they shouldn't. [1 mark]
