Cambridge IGCSE Biology Teacher's Resource (Third Edition) - Public - 20%

9781107614963 Cambridge IGCSE Biology Teacher’s Resource Mary Jones and Geoff Jones.
C M Y K
Cambridge IGCSE Biology, Third edition

Teacher’s Resource
Mary Jones and Geoff Jones
Cambridge IGCSE Biology Teacher’s Resource

Cambridge IGCSE Biology, Third edition matches the requirements of
the latest Cambridge IGCSE Biology syllabus (0610). It is endorsed by
Cambridge International Examinations for use with their examination.
This Teacher’s Resource contains a range of materials designed to support
Mary Jones and Geoff Jones
teaching of the syllabus. Its content has been revised and rearranged,
ensuring that it is up to date and comprehensive in its coverage, with new
material covered. A Coursebook and Workbook are also available. Cambridge IGCSE®
Biology
The Teacher’s Resource contains:
• editable teaching notes for each chapter, including lesson plans,
common misconceptions and homework ideas
• a collection of editable practical activities, with accompanying
teacher’s/technician’s guidance notes
• editable Worksheets and answers organised by chapter
• answers to end-of-chapter questions from the Coursebook
• answers and workings to the exercises from the Workbook
• model exam papers and mark schemes
• animations. Teacher’s Resource
Other components of IGCSE Biology, Third edition:
Coursebook ISBN 978-1-107-61479-6
Workbook ISBN 978-1-107-61493-2
Completely Cambridge – Cambridge
Third edition
resources for Cambridge qualifications
Cambridge University Press works closely with Cambridge
Jones and Jones

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ISBN 978-1-107-61496-3
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Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014
9781107614963cvr.indd 20 12/09/2013 16:06

Teaching ideas
These teaching notes are intended to provide outline ideas for ways in which you might cover
the IGCSE Biology syllabus with your students. They do not provide a complete scheme
of work, nor lesson plans. They are simply suggestions, some of which you might like to
incorporate into your lessons.
It is most important to remember that biology is not just a body of knowledge. Biology is a
science, and students should be made constantly aware that research is ongoing and continues
to surprise us with new findings, some of which contradict what we thought we already
knew. They need to become familiar with scientific method. They should be asked to make
careful observations and record them, to display, analyse and interpret results, to evaluate
the reliability of results and to plan and evaluate their own experiments. The activities in the
Coursebook, exercises in the Workbook and the worksheets supplied as part of this Teacher’s
Resource provide many opportunities for developing these skills, and you will probably also
like to add some of your own.
The notes for each chapter begin with a table suggesting a possible way of breaking up
the material to be covered into a number of topics. The number of lessons you might spend
on each topic is given as a range, because it will depend very much on what students have
done before, and also on how much time you decide to spend on providing students with
opportunities to develop skills such as data-handling or planning experiments. For each topic,
relevant resources in the Coursebook, Workbook and worksheets are listed.
Outline descriptions of what might be included in lessons covering each topic are then
given. These are no more than suggestions, and they are not comprehensive. You may like
to use all of them, some of them or none of them. Most indicate ways in which students can
become actively involved in their learning, rather than passively absorbing information.
There is also a list of some of the most common misunderstandings and misconceptions
that are regularly seen in students’ answers, and some suggestions for tasks that could be set
for homework.

© Cambridge University Press 2014 IGCSE Biology Introduction: Teaching ideas 1
Teaching ideas
Chapter 1 Classification
Syllabus sections covered: 1.1 to 1.4
Teaching resources
Syllabus 40-minute Resources in Resources in Resources on
Topic
section periods Coursebook Workbook this CD-ROM
1.1 Characteristics of 1 EOCQ 1 Worksheet 1.1
living things Characteristics of
living organisms
1.2 Concept and use of a 1 Question 1.1
classification system
EOCQ 2
1.3 (part) The kingdoms of 2 to 4 Activity 1.1
living organisms Making biological
drawings
Viruses
Questions 1.2, 1.3,
1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7,
1.8
EOCQ 3
1.3 (part) Classifying animals; 2 to 4 Activity 1.2 Exercise 1.1 Worksheet 1.2
Classifying plants; Calculating Observing and Characteristics of
magnification magnification drawing organisms vertebrates
EOCQs 5, 6
1.4 Keys 1 to 2 Question with Exercise 1.2 Worksheet 1.3
Fig. 1.20 Using keys Writing a key
EOCQ 4
Topic 1 Characteristics of living things

Coursebook section 1.1
Teaching ideas
Many students are likely to already have some knowledge of the characteristics of
living organisms. It is a good idea to try to draw these out from them, rather than simply
telling them what the characteristics are. Some examples of ways you might do this are
outlined below.
◆ Hold a living plant, an animal (or yourself) and a non-living object (for example, a kettle)
where all students can see them. Ask students to suggest characteristics that the animal and
the plant share, but which the non-living object does not have. Build up a list on the board.

© Cambridge University Press 2014 IGCSE Biology Chapter 1: Teaching ideas 1
◆ Alternatively, settle students into groups, and ask the groups to suggest a list of seven
characteristics of all living organisms. Then ask one member of each group to feed back
their ideas to the rest of the class.
◆ Make several sets of cards, each with a process written on it. Include the seven
characteristics of living organisms, and also some others that could be mistaken by
students – for example, ‘possessing a blood system’, ‘having a brain’. Hand out a set of cards
to each group, and ask students to sort them into characteristics that all living organisms
share, and those that are possessed by only some living organisms. It may be best not to
worry too much about defining each term in the list at this stage, as students are more
likely to retain this knowledge when they cover each process in more detail. However,
if you would like to deal with this in this lesson, you could have a second set of cards with
definitions of each process, and ask the groups to match each process card with a
definition card.
◆ Challenge students to explain why a moving car is not a living organism, even though it
needs nutrients (fuel), releases energy through chemical reactions (between oxygen and fuel),
can respond to stimuli (for example, the driver’s foot on the brake pedal) and can move.
◆ Ask students if they think there is life on other planets. If so, would it have to show all of
the characteristics of life here on Earth?
◆ End the lesson with a quick spelling quiz. Read out each of the seven characteristics, plus
the other new terms introduced, and give a short time (say 15 seconds) to write each one
down. This is probably best done in small groups, where the better spellers can work with
weaker ones.
Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

◆ Students often think only of animals when listing characteristics of living organisms.
◆ They may think that plants cannot move. Explain the difference between movement and
locomotion. If possible, show them an example of movement in a plant.
◆ Excretion may be confused with egestion. Students may think that plants do not
excrete. Remind them that they get rid of oxygen from their leaves when they are
photosynthesising. Old leaves, containing excretory substances, may be dropped from
a plant. They will look at this difference again when they study the digestive system and
the kidneys.
◆ Respiration may be confused with breathing or gas exchange.
◆ Any one living organism does not have to carry out all the processes all the time. So, for
example, the students are not reproducing at this moment, but humans as a species have
the capacity to reproduce.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 1.1 Characteristics of living organisms
◆ Think of a mnemonic for the seven characteristics of living things. Bring to the next lesson,
when the class votes for the best one, which then goes up on the wall.
◆ Explain why a car is not a living organism.
◆ Make a set of revision flash cards with a characteristic of living things on one side and the
definition on the other.
◆ Design a living organism that lives on another planet, but which shows all the
characteristics of living things.
◆ Research different ways in which plants can move.
◆ End-of-chapter question 1

Topic 2 Concept and use of a classification system
Teaching ideas
◆ Sit students in groups and give each group a set of objects (you will probably get more
out of this exercise if each group has a similar set), which could be grouped in different
ways — for example, seeds and beads of different colours and shapes. Ask each group
to choose a way of classifying them (by colour, shape, living or non-living, and so on).
Use leading questions to encourage discussion: What features did they use for their
classification? Why is it helpful to classify things? Which method of classifying these
objects do they think is the most useful? (The answers should bring out the point that
the way you classify objects depends on why you are classifying them. You might classify
objects in a different way if you intend to make jewellery with them than if you intend to
eat them, for example.) Lead the discussion towards reasons why biologists classify living
organisms.
◆ Show students two organisms or pictures of two organisms, that have the same common
name but that are clearly not the same. Alternatively, or as well, show them an organism
that has different names in different places or countries. Examples should be taken from
the local environment if at all possible. Discuss with the students why it might matter if
people misunderstand each other when discussing a particular kind of animal or plant, and
lead them towards the idea of having one name for each species that is used all over the
world.
◆ Explain the binomial system of naming organisms, using Figure 1.3, or your own local
examples of organisms, to illustrate this.
◆ For students studying the Supplement, you might like to discuss the use of DNA in
classification here. Alternatively, you could leave this until you have covered the structure
of DNA in Chapter 4, when it will be much easier for students to understand.
◆ Do question 1.1 as a class exercise.

◆ You will often see Latin names written incorrectly in the media – for example, without the
use of a capital letter for the generic name, and students may not realise that this is wrong.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter question 1.2
Topic 3 The kingdoms of living organisms: viruses

Coursebook sections 1.3 and 1.4
Teaching ideas
Note that Core students need only know about the animal and plant kingdoms. You might be
able to cover this quite quickly, and move on to the next topic in the same lesson.
◆ Show students at least one example of each of the five kingdoms: an animal (including
themselves, and some animals other than mammals), a plant (including a non-flowering
plant, such as a moss), a fungus (perhaps a mushroom and a mould), and photographs
of bacteria.
◆ Use this as an opportunity to ask students to recall the characteristics of living organisms,
shared by all of these organisms.
◆ Use Coursebook pages 6 to 8 and your examples to discuss the characteristic features of
each kingdom.
◆ For Supplement students, you could also cover viruses in this lesson, using the information
on page 9. It is difficult for students to appreciate, so early in their course, why viruses are
not normally classified as living organisms (and certainly do not belong to any of the five
kingdoms), but this can be dealt with as a discussion.

◆ Students often use the word ‘animal’ to mean ‘mammal’.
Homework ideas
Topic 4 Classifying animals and plants: magnification

Coursebook sections 1.5, 1.6.
Teaching ideas
◆ Set out a ‘circus’ of specimens and photographs representing each of the groups of
vertebrates, as described on Coursebook pages 9 and 10. Hand out Worksheet 1.2 and ask
students to complete this. Bring the class together, and discuss the features that can be used
to classify vertebrates into these classes.
◆ A similar approach could be taken to deal with the classification of arthropods. It would
also be good to take students outside to look for arthropods – it is usually very easy to find
examples of ‘small animals with legs’ such as spiders, insects and millipedes.
◆ Ask students to make a large, labelled drawing of one or more of the animals used in the
circus, or that they have found. Activity 1.1 in the Coursebook could be used here, and/
or Workbook exercise 1.1, where the self-assessment sheet could be used to help students
focus on what is required from a biological drawing. Use their drawings to explain the
concept of magnification. Activity 1.2 could also be done. Note that magnification will be
revisited in Chapter 3.
◆ Classification of plants could be dealt with in a similar way to vertebrates and arthropods.
Note that only ferns and flowering plants are required; flowering plants can then be
identified as monocots or dicots. You should try to provide living examples for students to
see and handle, or – even better – take them outside to find the plants growing.

◆ It is very common for students to confuse the characteristic features of one class of
arthropods (e.g. insects) with the characteristic features of arthropods in general.
Homework ideas
◆ Activity 1.2 Calculating magnification
◆ End-of-chapter-questions 5 and 6

Topic 5 Keys
Teaching ideas
◆ Students normally find using a dichotomous key very easy. Show them how to use the key
on page 15 in the Coursebook. Then provide a key that you have written yourself to enable
the identification of different kinds of trees that grow in your school grounds. Ideally, allow
the students to go outside to identify selected trees; otherwise, bring small branches or
individual leaves into the classroom. (For future lessons, you may be able to use keys that
your students have written in previous years.)
◆ Students could then be asked to construct their own keys. Worksheet 1.3 provides material
for this, and so do Figure 1.23 and end-of-chapter question 4. It would also be an excellent
idea to ask students to construct keys to identify a small range of animals or plants that can
be found in the school grounds.

◆ Students may try to use a key by looking at all the organisms at once and trying to
match them against descriptions, rather than looking at just one organism and working
systematically through the key to identify it.
◆ When writing keys, they may use terms such as ‘long’ or ‘dark’, which are subjective and
therefore not useable by a person looking at just one type of organism. All descriptions
should be objective, as explained on Coursebook page 16.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 1.2 Using keys
◆ Worksheet 1.3 Writing a key
◆ Question in the caption of Figure 1.23 in the Coursebook
◆ Construct a key to identify the leaves of five trees that grow in the school grounds

Teaching ideas
Chapter 2 Cells
Syllabus sections covered: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
Teaching resources
Topic
Using a microscope 2 Activity 2.1 Worksheet 2.1
Using a microscope The parts of a
microscope
Questions 2.1, 2.2
2.1 Cell structure and 3–6 Activity 2.2 Exercise 2.1 Worksheet 2.2
organisation Looking at animal Animal and plant Cell structure
cells cells
Worksheet 2.3
EOCQs 3, 4 Exercise 2.2 Magnification
Drawing cells calculations
Questions 2.3 to
and calculating
2.19
magnification
Activity 2.3
Exercise 2.3
Looking at plant
Organelles
cells
2.2 Cells and organisms 1 EOCQs 1, 2, 5
Topic 1 Using a microscope

Teaching ideas
◆ Ascertain how familiar students are with using a microscope. If they are already competent
in this skill, you can move straight on to the next topic.
◆ Show students the microscopes that you have in your laboratory, and demonstrate how to
use one. You could use Worksheet 2.1 The parts of a microscope, to check they know the
names of the different parts.
◆ Ask students to do Activity 2.1 Using a microscope. Students could then make temporary
slides of drops of pond water, or moss leaves. If you have suitable equipment, you could
project images from a microscope onto a screen.

◆ There are no common misunderstandings associated with this topic.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 2.1 The parts of a microscope

Topic 2 Cell structure and organisation
Teaching ideas
◆ Ascertain how familiar students are with the structure of animal and plant cells. If they
already have good knowledge of them you may be able to move quickly through this topic.
◆ Project a large image of some cells onto a screen. Ask students what they are. Ask them to
try to identify the different parts. Ask them how big they think cells really are. Tell them
that a large cell may be about 0.1 mm long, and ask them to look at a ruler and imagine 10
cells side by side between two of the millimetre marks.
◆ Revise the concept of magnification. Coursebook questions 2.3 to 2.5 could be done as a
class discussion, or as group work.
◆ Students could make model cells, using a plastic bag (cell membrane), water or jelly
(cytoplasm) and a small rubber ball (nucleus). Put the whole thing inside a cardboard box
to represent the cell wall of a plant cell. Challenge students to suggest how they could add
chloroplasts and vacuole to the plant cell model.
◆ Discuss and explain the structure of animal cells. Students could carry out Activity 2.2
Looking at animal cells. They could exchange their drawings with one another, and mark
them using the self-assessment check list for drawing (on the student CD-ROM). Discuss
any difficulties that students had with this activity, and how they solved them.
◆ Use a similar approach to deal with the structure of plant cells. You could perhaps begin
by drawing a rectangle on the board, and asking pupils to come to the front and complete
the diagram to show the structures in a plant cell. Activity 2.3 Looking at plant cells, could
be carried out. (You will need to demonstrate how to obtain and mount the piece of onion
epidermis.)
◆ Students should now have enough information to be able to construct their own
comparison of features found in animal cells and plant cells. This could possibly be done as
a class or group activity.
◆ Coursebook questions 2.6 to 2.19 can now be answered.

◆ Students frequently confuse cell membrane and cell wall.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 2.2 Cell structure
◆ Worksheet 2.3 Magnification calculations
◆ Workbook exercise 2.1 Animal and plant cells
◆ Workbook exercise 2.2 Drawing cells and calculating magnification
◆ Workbook exercise 2.3 Organelles
Topic 3 Cells and organisms


Teaching ideas
◆ Discuss the idea that there are many different kinds of cell in an organism such as an
animal or plant. (It is suggested that you wait to cover the detailed structure of the cells
listed in Section 2.2 in the syllabus until you reach the topics where the functions of these
specialised cells are covered.) Introduce the ideas of tissues, organs and organ systems.
Ensure that students know they need to learn these definitions.

◆ Students with Spanish as their first language often seem to use the term ‘organism’ to mean
‘body’ (for example, ‘It is bad for your organism to eat too much fat’), which is incorrect.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, 2 and 5

Teaching ideas
Chapter 3 Movement in and out of cells
Teaching resources
Syllabus 40-minute Resources in Resources in Resources on this
Topic
section periods Coursebook Workbook CD-ROM
3.1 Diffusion 2 to 3 Questions 3.1 to 3.3 Exercise 3.1
Diffusion
Activity 3.1
experiment
Demonstrating
diffusion in a solution
Activity 3.2
Investigating factors
that affect the rate of
diffusion
Activity 3.3
Diffusion of
substances through a
membrane
EOCQ 4
3.2 Osmosis 3 to 6 Questions 3.4 to 3.15 Exercise 3.2 Worksheet 3.1
How plants take up Drying mangoes
EOCQs 1, 2, 3
water
Activity 3.4
Exercise 3.3
Investigate and
Osmosis and
describe the effects
potatoes
on plant tissue
of immersion in
different solutions
Activity 3.5
Measuring the rate of
osmosis
Activity 3.6
Osmosis and potato
strips
3.3 Active transport 1 to 2 EOCQ 4 Exercise 3.4 Worksheet 3.2
Diffusion and Diffusion, osmosis
active transport and active transport
Topic 1 Diffusion

Teaching ideas
◆ It is worth checking students’ understanding of particle theory, which they may have
covered in earlier science lessons. Before they can understand diffusion or osmosis, they
must understand:
– the concept of particles moving randomly
– the terms ‘molecule’, ‘atom’ and ‘ion’
– that a solution contains particles of a solute dispersed in a solvent.
If you are concerned about any of this, you could try setting students a short verbal or
written test (for example, 10 multiple-choice questions), so that you can discover early on if
you need to spend time on these concepts.
◆ Activity 3.1 Demonstrating diffusion in a solution, could provide a good starting point.
You could set this up as a demonstration (involving students in setting up the apparatus
if possible) near the beginning of the lesson, and return to it at the end. Alternatively,
students could do Activity 3.1 themselves, in small groups. If possible, leave the apparatus
until next lesson before recording results.
◆ If you can take your class into a space where they can move around freely – a hall,
playground or sports field, for example – they can act as though they were gas particles.
Ask them to stand in one spot in one small part of the room, approximately equally spaced
from each other and not touching (that is, like the particles in a gas). Each student then
moves in a randomly chosen direction in a straight line. They only change course when
they hit a wall of their ‘container’, or another particle, in which case they bounce off and
travel in a straight line in a different direction. After a short while, stop the students, asking
them to stand still and tell you what has happened – they should have spread into all the
available space and be approximately evenly distributed. You could repeat the exercise as
though they were particles in a liquid – in this case, they should hold out their hands and
always be lightly touching another ‘particle’ as they move.
◆ Ask students to make suggestions of instances where diffusion is important to living
organisms. There are several mentioned on page 29 in the Coursebook.
◆ Activity 3.2 is a planning exercise. Demonstrate the technique of using agar jelly and an
alkali to measure diffusion. If your class has had no experience of planning experiments
before, you should do this as a class exercise, discussing with them what they need to
think about as they plan. It is recommended that you use the terms independent variable
and dependent variable, and consider all of the variables that should be kept constant. If
the class already has experience of planning their own experiments, this could be done as
group work, with different groups investigating different independent variables.
◆ Activity 3.3 is well worth carrying out. It introduces the idea of diffusion through
microscopic holes in a membrane, which can be built on when you move on to
discuss osmosis.
◆ Show students some Visking tubing, and explain that it has molecule-sized holes in it,
much too small for them to see. Show them how to moisten and open the tubing.
They can then set up the apparatus for themselves. They should begin to get results
quite swiftly. They may be able to begin writing up their experiment while they are
waiting for their final results. When everyone has results, lead a discussion about them:
What did they see? What does this mean? How did the iodine get into the starch solution?
Why didn’t the starch get into the iodine solution? What do they think the water molecules
were doing? This is an opportunity to emphasise that each ‘particle’ is moving on its own;
they should be thinking about iodine particles and water particles, not ‘iodine solution’,
when considering what is moving

◆ If you plan to set Workbook exercise 3.1 Diffusion experiment, as homework, you may
like to show students a Petri dish containing agar jelly, make some holes in the jelly and
add some coloured solution to it. Depending on the students’ previous experience, you
may also need to discuss how to calculate means. This is also a good opportunity to think
about what is meant by a hypothesis, and how an experiment can be set up to test one.
They will also need to think about variables. They do not need to know the terms
‘dependent variable’ (what they measure) and ‘independent variable’ (the parameter that
they change, in this case the temperature) but you may find it helpful to use these terms.
Check what is done in chemistry and physics lessons. Students will also need to think
about sources of experimental error, and not confuse these with ‘mistakes’. In this case, the
main source of error is likely to be in deciding exactly where the ‘edge’ of the colour is in
the agar, so that it is difficult to measure it. It is also likely that the coloured areas will not
be absolutely circular. ‘Mistakes’ should not be included as sources of error – these could
include not measuring the temperature properly or not adding the same volume of liquid
to each hole.

◆ It is very common for students to think that the movement of particles in diffusion is
somehow purposeful – that the particles try to move so that they end up evenly spaced.
Students may also think that cells somehow make substances diffuse. This misconception
may become apparent through statements such as ‘The cell diffuses oxygen into itself ’.
◆ Students who do not have a clear grasp of particle theory may confuse diffusion with
mass flow (although they will not know this term). It is very important that they think of
diffusion in terms of individual particles each moving randomly.
Homework ideas
◆ Coursebook questions 3.1 to 3.3
◆ Workbook exercise 3.1 Diffusion experiment
Topic 2 Osmosis
Teaching ideas
◆ This lesson introduces osmosis. The crucial factor is to develop this from the students’ work
on diffusion, because osmosis is simply a particular example of diffusion, not something
totally different. There is also considerable opportunity here to help students to develop
various skills, including taking measurements and recording results (make sure that all the
values in the results table are recorded to the same number of decimal places), drawing a
line graph, processing the results (calculating mean rate of movement), making predictions
and planning an experiment. If all this is new to the students, you may need an extra lesson
to cover it.
◆ Set up the apparatus shown in Activity 3.5 Measuring the rate of osmosis (but do not
attempt to actually do the activity yet – this is simply a demonstration of osmosis at
this stage). Many students will be able to use their understanding of what happened in
Activity 3.2 to explain what they see happening here. If you allow them to work out for
themselves what is happening, they will end up with a much firmer grasp of osmosis than

if they are simply presented with a description of it. Ensure that they understand that water
molecules are moving in both directions through the membrane, not all from the water
into the concentrated sugar solution.
◆ Through discussion, build up the formal definition of osmosis. Ensure that students do
not become confused between the idea of a concentrated solution – that is, one in which
there is a lot of solute – and a solution where there is a high concentration of water
molecules – that is, a dilute solution. You may like to avoid this by using the term water
potential (see below) instead. Note that the correct term to use for the membrane is
‘partially permeable’, not ‘selectively permeable’.
◆ If your students are studying the Supplement, this is a good time to introduce the idea
of water potential. This should be dealt with very, very simply. Students only need to
know that a solution with a lot of water in it has a high water potential, and that one with
less water and more solute has a lower water potential. Most students have no difficulty
with this concept. From their understanding of diffusion, they should be able to predict
that there will be net diffusion of water molecules from the solution with a higher water
potential to the solution with a lower water potential.
◆ Once you are happy that the class has a good basic understanding of osmosis, you can
begin to look at how it affects living cells. Draw an animal cell on the board, and ask
students to tell you where there is a partially permeable membrane. Then draw a piece
of Visking tubing containing sugar solution. Draw a beaker around the cell and another
around the Visking tubing, and draw water in each beaker. Ask students what is inside the
cell, and draw out the idea that it is a fairly concentrated solution (there are many solutes,
such as proteins, for example). Now ask them to tell you what will happen to the Visking
tubing, and then what will happen to the cell. Most groups of students will be able to
predict that water will move into the cell and into the Visking tubing by osmosis.
◆ Now replace the drawing of the Visking tubing with a drawing of a plant cell. Explain that
water and solutes can all move freely through the cell wall – it is fully permeable. Again,
students should be able to predict that water will move into the cell. Discuss the fact that
the animal cell may burst and the plant cell will not, because of the strength of the cell wall.
◆ Work through a similar train of thought with the cells placed in a solution more
concentrated than the cytoplasm. Students will almost certainly not be able to predict that
the cell contents pull away from the cell wall in the plant cell, but if you tell them it happens
they should be able to explain why. (Note that, in many types of cell, the membrane
remains fixed to the wall at some points. It is when these points do eventually tear away
that the cell is irreversibly damaged.)
◆ Activities 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 could each be carried out.

◆ The definition of osmosis frequently causes confusion between a ‘concentrated solution’
and a ‘high concentration of water molecules’. This can result in weaker students saying
that ‘osmosis is the opposite of diffusion’.
◆ As for diffusion, confusion arises if students are not able to visualise the water molecules
and solute molecules as separate entities.
◆ Students often confuse the cell wall and cell membrane.
◆ Students may say that plant cells do not burst when placed in pure water because the cell
wall prevents the water from going in.

Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 3.2 How plants take up water
◆ Workbook exercise 3.3 Osmosis and potatoes
◆ Worksheet 3.1 Drying mangoes
Topic 3 Active transport

Teaching ideas
◆ Discuss the ideas on page 35 in the Coursebook. Build up the formal definition with
the class.
◆ Ask students to do Workbook exercise 3.4 Diffusion and active transport. It may be useful
for them to work in groups, so they can discuss their ideas within the group. When all
have finished, ask one person in a group to tell you their suggested answers to a question,
gradually working your way through all of them.

◆ More able students will be able to understand this concept, but it does require the ability
to visualise very small particles, and to appreciate how energy is required to move particles
against their concentration gradient.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 3.4 Diffusion and active transport
◆ Worksheet 3.2 Diffusion, osmosis and active transport

Teaching ideas
Chapter 4 The chemicals of life
Syllabus section covered: 4
Teaching resources
Syllabus 40-minute Resources in Resources in Resources on this
Topic
section periods Coursebook Workbook CD-ROM
4 Water 2 to 4 Questions 4.1 to 4.6 Exercise 4.1 Worksheet 4.1
Carbohydrates Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates EOCQs 1, 3
Activity 4.1
Testing foods for
sugars
Activity 4.2
Testing foods for
starch
4 Fats 2 to 3 Questions 4.7 to 4.9 Worksheet 4.2
Using lipids (fats and
Activity 4.3
oils)
Testing foods for fats
4 Proteins 2 to 5 Questions 4.10 to 4.14 Exercise 4.2 Worksheet 4.3
Proteins Body composition
EOCQs 2, 4
Exercise 4.3
Activity 4.4
Testing a
Testing foods for
hypothesis
protein
4 DNA 1 to 2 EOCQ 5 Exercise 4.4 DNA
Topic 1 Water; Carbohydrates

Coursebook sections 4.1 and 4.2
Teaching ideas
◆ Ask students for suggestions about how much of their body consists of water. (It is a little
below 70%.) Ask them why we need water. You are likely to get the answer ‘so we don’t get
dehydrated’, so you will need to move the thinking on by asking what happens when we get
dehydrated, which can then lead towards ideas about what water actually does in the body.
This may be a good time to introduce the term ‘metabolism’.
◆ Show students a plate of different foods and ask them which ones contain carbohydrates. This
can lead into a discussion of what carbohydrates are. You could use popper beads to illustrate
how sugar molecules link together to form disaccharides and polysaccharides. Show them
how sugar dissolves in water but starch does not. (The starch that is often used in biology
experiments may be ‘soluble’ starch, but still does not easily dissolve in cold water.) Students
will probably be able to tell you that carbohydrates are energy foods. You could show them
video clips or photographs (there are plenty on the Internet) of athletes in a long-distance race,
or tennis players, drinking fluids containing carbohydrates, and ask them why they do this.
◆ Do Activity 4.1 Testing foods for sugars, and Activity 4.2 Testing foods for starch.
Depending on the previous experience of the class, and their confidence in a practical
situation, you could run these two activities together, so that they test each of the foods
for both reducing sugars and for starch. This is a good opportunity to develop the skills of
careful observation and recording of results. Ensure that they do not write ‘no change’ in
the ‘colour’ column, but state the colour that they see.

◆ This is usually a straightforward topic, with no difficult concepts – so long as students are
able to use the term ‘molecule’ with confidence.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 4.1 Carbohydrates
◆ Worksheet 4.1 Carbohydrates
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, 3
Topic 2 Fats
Teaching ideas
◆ For continuity from the previous lesson, you could show students the same plate of foods
and now ask which ones contain fats.
◆ Discuss the need for fats in living organisms. Tell students that fats contain twice as much
energy per gram as carbohydrates. You could discuss the relatively high fat content of the
diet of Inuit people, or others who live in cold climates, and perhaps also investigate the
diets of people carrying out strenuous activities in polar regions, such as polar explorers.
Ensure that students also think about the uses of fats in plants; you could show them
bottles of various cooking oils (groundnut, olive, corn and so on) and draw out the idea
that these all come from plant seeds, and why seeds often contain oils. (Oils are fats that are
liquid at room temperature.)
◆ Do Activity 4.3 Testing foods for fats. You may prefer to do this as a demonstration, as
it works best with absolute ethanol rather than a solution of it, but in that case do try to
involve the students in the tests and ensure that they each write down the results.

◆ Many students will think that ‘fats are bad for you’, so it is important to emphasise their
positive roles in the body as well as mentioning why too much high-fat food in the diet
may be bad for health. This latter point is dealt with more fully later in the course.
Homework ideas
◆ Produce a poster defending the reputation of fats – that is, emphasising why we need them
in the diet.
◆ Worksheet 4.2 Using lipids (fats and oils)
Topic 3 Proteins
Teaching ideas
◆ As for carbohydrates and fats, students should be able to tell you examples of foods that
contain protein. Students will probably be able to tell you that proteins are needed for
‘growth and repair’, but they should now be introduced to some particular examples of
proteins – for example, haemoglobin, enzymes, antibodies or insulin.
◆ Do Activity 4.4 Testing foods for protein. It is a good idea to set up a tube showing the
colour obtained when there is no protein present, and another showing the purple colour,
for reference.
◆ Workbook exercise 4.3 Testing a hypothesis, could be done as a class exercise. Students
could then carry out their plans.

◆ There are usually no difficulties with this topic.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 4.2 Proteins
◆ Workbook exercise 4.3 Testing a hypothesis
◆ Worksheet 4.3 Body composition
Topic 4 DNA
Teaching ideas
◆ If at all possible, show learners a model of part of a DNA molecule. They do not need to
know the detailed structure, but should understand that each strand is made up of a series
of bases, and that complementary bases pair up with each other.
◆ End-of-chapter question 5 is a good test of understanding of the structure of DNA. This
could be discussed as a class or group exercise.

◆ There are usually no difficulties with this topic, as long as no attempt is made to teach too
much detail. The way in which DNA codes for the assembly of amino acids into proteins is
dealt with in Chapter 18.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 4.4 DNA

Teaching ideas
Chapter 5 Enzymes
Teaching resources
Topic
5 Biological catalysts 1 Questions 5.1 to 5.6 Worksheet 5.1
Enzyme facts
5 Properties of 3 to 8 Activity 5.1 Exercise 5.1 Worksheet 5.2
enzymes The effect of catalase Writing enzyme Catalase
on hydrogen peroxide questions
Questions 5.7 to 5.9 Exercise 5.2
Lipase experiment
EOCQs 1, 2, 3, 4
Exercise 5.3
Activity 5.2
Finding the
Investigating the
optimum pH for
effect of pH on the
amylase
activity of catalase
Exercise 5.4
Activity 5.3
How enzymes work
Investigating the
effect of temperature
on the activity of
amylase
Activity 5.4
Investigating the
effect of temperature
on the activity of
catalase
Topic 1 Biological catalysts

Teaching ideas
Note that this chapter provides ideal opportunities for students to work intensively on building
their practical skills. There are many practical activities in the Coursebook, and exercises in
the Workbook and worksheets. The sequence suggested below is just one of many possibilities.
You may like to use all of the material provided or select just some of it, depending on the time
available.
◆ Consider beginning almost straight away with Activity 5.1 The effect of catalase on
hydrogen peroxide. Students always enjoy this, and you could use it to get their attention
and interest for a discussion covering the properties of enzymes. It is a simple experiment
for students to do, making a good starting point for the more demanding practical
activities coming up in the next few lessons.
◆ Following Activity 5.1, discuss what enzymes are and how they work.
◆ Students could make models of enzymes and substrates, making the substrate a
complementary shape to the enzyme.

◆ Students often appear to believe that enzymes are alive. This leads to statements like ‘high
temperatures kill enzymes’. Try to deal with this misconception very early on.
Homework ideas
◆ Questions 5.1 to 5.6
◆ Worksheet 5.1 Enzyme facts
Topic 2 Properties of enzymes

Teaching ideas
◆ Activity 5.2 Investigating the effect of pH on the activity of catalase follows smoothly on
from Activity 5.1, as it involves the same enzyme. However, the technique involved is very
different and the level of difficulty for the students is much greater, involving more complex
manipulation, measurement and the collection and display of quantitative results. At
this relatively early point in the course, an outline results table is provided. The questions
ask students to address the reliability of their data and to think about important sources
of experimental error. They are likely to need help with this at this stage, especially in
distinguishing between sources of experimental error and ‘mistakes’ they may have made.
This technique has several very significant sources of error, which should make it possible
for most students to be able to recognise them.
◆ Students could do Activity 5.3 Investigating the effect of temperature on the activity
of amylase. This gives them an opportunity to work with a different enzyme, and a
different method of measuring the rate of activity. The extra step of having to test for the
disappearance of the substrate using iodine solution is often confusing to students, who
lose track of what is actually happening inside the test tubes.
◆ Set groups the task of planning the experiment in Activity 5.4 Investigating the effect of
temperature on the activity of catalase. The task is made easier because they will be using
an enzyme they have used before. They could measure the rate of reaction as in Activity
5.2 or they could measure the height of the froth produced after a set time. When they
have put together their main ideas, ask someone from each group to report back to the
class, and discuss the various plans. Encourage them to focus clearly on the variables they
will change, keep the same and measure. They could use the self-assessment checklist for
planning in the Workbook and also on the student CD-ROM.
◆ Workbook exercise 5.2 Lipase experiment, is another opportunity to develop planning
skills; it could be done as a class or group exercise.

◆ As mentioned above, students frequently confuse experimental error and human mistakes.
The distinction will need reinforcing here, and again each time they discuss the results of
their experiments in the future.
◆ Some students may think that a longer time (giving a larger number in their results table)
represents a higher rate of reaction.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 5.1 Writing enzyme questions
◆ Workbook exercise 5.2 Lipase experiment
◆ Workbook exercise 5.3 Finding the optimum pH for amylase
◆ Workbook exercise 5.4 How enzymes work
◆ Worksheet 5.2 Catalase

Teaching ideas
Chapter 6 Plant nutrition
Teaching resources
Topic
6.1 Types of 1 Questions 6.1 to 6.3 Worksheet 6.1
nutrition; The photosynthesis
photosynthesis equation
6.2 Leaves 2 to 3 Questions 6.4 to 6.15 Exercise 6.1 Worksheet 6.2
EOCQs 2, 4 How a palisade Leaves as food and
cell obtains its shelter
Activity 6.1 requirements
Use a microscope to
observe the cells that cover Exercise 6.2
a leaf Sun and shade leaves
6.1, 6.3 Products of 2 to 4 Questions 6.16 to 6.19

photosynthesis EOCQs 1, 3, 5, 6, 7
Activity 6.2
Testing a leaf for starch
Activity 6.5
To show that oxygen is
produced in photosynthesis
6.1 Factors 2 to 6 Questions 6.20 to 6.22 Exercise 6.3
affecting EOCQ 8 Limiting factors
photosynthesis
Activity 6.3 Exercise 6.4
To see if light is needed for Effect of increased
photosynthesis carbon dioxide and
temperature on tree
Activity 6.4
growth
To see if chlorophyll is
needed for photosynthesis
Activity 6.6
To see if carbon dioxide is
needed for photosynthesis
Activity 6.7
Photosynthesis in a pond
weed
Activity 6.8
Investigating the effect
of light intensity on
photosynthesis
(continued)

Topic
Activity 6.9
Investigating the effect of
carbon dioxide concentration
on the rate of photosynthesis
Activity 6.10
temperature on the rate of
photosynthesis
Topic 1 Types of nutrition; photosynthesis

Coursebook sections 6.1, 6.2
Teaching ideas
This chapter, like Chapter 5, provides ideal opportunities for students to work intensively
on building their practical skills. There are many practical activities in the Coursebook, and
exercises in the Workbook and worksheets.
◆ Most students are likely to know something about photosynthesis, so you could ask them
to tell you what plants use and what they make, and what the energy source is. You can
then build up the word equation. It is good to have some plants visible, either in the room
or outside – encourage students to look at them and to tell you why they are green.
◆ Students following the Supplement also need to know the balanced equation. You could
use Worksheet 6.1 The photosynthesis equation, at this point.

◆ Students often write that ‘photosynthesis is the way that plants respire’.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 6.1 The photosynthesis equation
Topic 2 Leaves
Teaching ideas
◆ Leaf structure is easy for students to study and understand. You could give students two
very different leaves (e.g. from a monocot and dicot) and ask them to make drawings of
them, calculate magnification, and produce a table comparing their structures.
◆ Activity 6.1 Use a microscope to observe the cells that cover a leaf, makes a good
introduction to the internal, microscopic structure of a leaf – students learn that there are
little holes in the lower epidermis, and can then find out where they lead to.
◆ Introduce diagrams or photographs of the internal structure of leaves. Scanning
electronmicrographs, such as Figure 6.4 in the Coursebook, are a good starting point, as
they show the structures in three dimensions, which may be easier for some students to
relate to reality than diagrams such as Figure 6.3. Show students a whole leaf, cut or tear it
in half and explain that they are looking at the very thin edge.
◆ You could provide a sheet of paper with drawings of individual cells from each of the
layers, which students can cut out and paste onto a sheet of paper to build up a ‘diagram’ of
a transverse section through a leaf.
◆ Once the structure of the leaf has been covered, you can ask students to suggest how
water, light and carbon dioxide get to a chloroplast inside a palisade cell (which is where
most photosynthesis takes place). If you have a model showing leaf structure, this can be
very helpful.

◆ Students often do not appreciate what diagrams of a transverse section of a leaf represent,
because they cannot imagine that something as thin as a leaf can contain so many layers
of cells.
◆ Students often think that water enters leaves through the stomata.
◆ They may think that leaves (particularly the stomata) do something active to bring carbon
dioxide into the leaf.
◆ Students say that chlorophyll ‘attracts’ sunlight, rather than absorbs energy from it.
◆ They tend to confuse chlorophyll with chloroplasts.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 6.1 How a palisade cell obtains its requirements
◆ Workbook exercise 6.2 Sun and shade leaves
◆ Worksheet 6.2 Leaves as food and shelter
Topic 3 Products of photosynthesis

Coursebook section 6.4, 6.5
Teaching ideas
◆ You could begin this topic by asking students what plants make in photosynthesis, working
towards the idea that a leaf will contain starch. Ask them to tell you how to test for starch,
and then drop some iodine solution onto the leaf. Ask the students why the leaf does not go
blue-black. Use discussion to draw out the idea that the starch is inside the chloroplasts in
the palisade cells, and that the iodine solution cannot get through the partially permeable
cell membranes to reach it. This can lead to a demonstration of how to test a leaf for starch,
as described in Activity 6.2 Testing a leaf for starch.
◆ Activity 6.5 To show that oxygen is produced in photosynthesis provides students with
first-hand experience of the production of oxygen. Depending on the temperature and
light intensity in the laboratory, you may be able to obtain results quite quickly, but may
need to leave the collection of results until the next lesson.
◆ Alternatively, Activity 6.7 Photosynthesis in a pond weed involves the collection of
quantitative results.
◆ A good follow-up to these practical activities could be the discussion of the other products
of photosynthesis, which are covered in Section 6.4 in the Coursebook. This is also a good
time to deal with the need for magnesium ions and nitrate ions.

◆ Students often do not appreciate what diagrams of a transverse section of a leaf represent,
because they cannot imagine that something as thin as a leaf can contain so many layers
of cells.
◆ Students often think that water enters leaves through the stomata.
◆ They may think that leaves (particularly stomata) do something active to bring carbon
dioxide into the leaf.
◆ Students often say that chlorophyll ‘attracts’ sunlight, rather than absorbs energy from it.
◆ They tend to confuse chlorophyll with chloroplasts.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, 3, 5, 6, 7
Topic 4 Factors affecting photosynthesis

Coursebook section 6.5, 6.6, 6.7
Teaching ideas
◆ There are numerous Activities that could be done at this point. Activity 6.3, To see
if light is needed for photosynthesis, Activity 6.4, To see if chlorophyll is needed for
photosynthesis could be done by students. Activity 6.6, To see if carbon dioxide is needed
for photosynthesis, would be best done as a demonstration.
◆ Activity 6.8, Investigating the effect of light intensity on photosynthesis, is a planning
exercise. This is an excellent task for helping students to develop their scientific enquiry
skills. It is also a good introduction to the concept of limiting factors.
◆ Activity 6.9, Investigating the effect of carbon dioxide concentration on the rate of
photosynthesis, also involves limiting factors.
◆ Activity 6.10, Investigating the effect of temperature on the rate of photosynthesis, is
another planning exercise.
◆ The importance of photosynthesis to other living organisms can be discussed. This can be
revisited later, when respiration is discussed. Alternatively, you might like to carry out the
experiment described in Workbook exercise 11.2 The effect of animals and plants on the
carbon dioxide concentration in water, at this point.

◆ Students often have difficulty in understanding that, when a graph such as that in
Figure 6.13 levels off, something other than the factor on the y-axis is limiting the rate
of photosynthesis.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 6.3 Limiting factors
◆ Workbook exercise 6.4 Effect of increased carbon dioxide and temperature on tree growth

Teaching ideas
Chapter 7 Animal nutrition
Syllabus sections covered: 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5
Teaching resources
Topic
7.1 Diet 2 to 4 Questions 7.1 to 7.6 Exercise 7.1 Worksheet 7.1
Diet Essential amino
EOCQs 2, 5, 7
acids
Activity 7.1
Testing foods for
vitamin C
7.2, 7.3, Digestion, 3 to 7 Questions 7.7 to 7.10 Exercise 7.2 Worksheet 7.2
7.4, 7.5 absorption and Functions of the Checking your
Questions 7.11 to 7.14
assimilation digestive system teeth
EOCQ 6
Exercise 7.3 Worksheet 7.3
Activity 7.2 Tooth decay data The structure
Checking your teeth analysis of the digestive
system
Vitamin D Worksheet 7.4
EOCQs 1, 3, 4
absorption Digestion
Activity 7.3 vocabulary
A model of absorption
7.2 Cholera and 1 Questions 7.24 and 7.25 Exercise 7.4
diarrhoea Cholera patterns in
Bangladesh
Topic 1 Diet
Teaching ideas
◆ Use a quick quiz to find out what students already know about diet. There can sometimes
be difficulties if they feel they ‘know it all already’. It is almost certain that their knowledge
will not be sufficient for IGCSE level. If you give them a 10-mark multiple-choice test at
the start of the lesson, and then again at the end, this is likely to show them that they have
learnt something new during this lesson.
◆ If possible, use an interactive computer program that allows students to input the food they
have eaten during the day and be provided with a breakdown of its energy content and
nutrient content. They can compare results, and discuss bad and good points about each
other’s diets. (This can be done using food tables – like the highly pared-down example on
page 75 of the Coursebook – but this is very laborious and time-consuming, and students
do not usually enjoy doing it.)
◆ Take the opportunity to ask students to think back to what they learnt about proteins, fats
and carbohydrates in Chapter 4 The chemicals of life.
◆ You could ask students to bring in some food labels and use some of these to discuss with
the class the nutrient contents of various foods.
◆ Activity 7.1 Testing foods for vitamin C, could be carried out. Once students have
experience of the test, they can then plan and carry out an investigation as suggested in the
instructions.

◆ Students may associate the term ‘diet’ with trying to lose weight.
◆ They may think that fats are entirely bad and not appreciate that they are essential
nutrients.
◆ It is very common for students to think that one nutrient can ‘contain’ another – for
example, they may say that vitamins supply you with protein.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 2, 5, 7
◆ Make an illustrated leaflet about balanced diets (either one page in detail, or an outline plan
for the whole leaflet) that could be placed in a doctor’s waiting room for patients to read.
◆ Worksheet 7.1 Essential amino acids
◆ Workbook exercise 7.1 Diet
Topic 2 Digestion, absorption and assimilation

Coursebook sections 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5
Teaching ideas
This is, in reality, a large collection of topics. There are many different possible routes through,
and which you choose will depend to a large extent to the previous experience and knowledge
of your students. It is well worth using some kind of assessment to find out what they already
know and understand before you begin these topics. It is very easy for them to ‘switch off ’
because they have covered it all before. If they have indeed covered much of this before, then it
is important to try to ensure that everything you do has something new, fresh and challenging
in it, to keep their interest.
◆ Digestion and the need for it is frequently completely misunderstood by students taking
IGCSE examinations. A clear understanding of what digestion is, and why it is necessary,
is fundamental to an understanding of the whole of the rest of this topic, so it is well worth
taking time over. For example, you could use a cylindrical piece of modelling clay with a
hole through its centre to show students how the digestive system is a tube that runs from
one end of the body to the other, and that its contents are still in the ‘outside world’ and
not actually inside the body. This is a difficult concept for many students but unless they
understand it, digestion and absorption make no sense at all. You could also do something
similar with a tube made from a piece of wire netting or other perforated material. Feed
strings of popper beads inside the tube, and show how they need to be split apart into
individual beads before they can get through the holes in the sides of the tube.

◆ Follow this up with a discussion of how only small molecules can get through the wall of
the alimentary canal and enter the body tissues. This can lead in to the ideas of mechanical
and chemical digestion. Figure 7.10 looks very daunting, but you may like to work through
this slowly with students, showing them how first mechanical digestion and then
chemical digestion produce small molecules of nutrients that can get through the wall
of the intestine.
◆ Teeth make a much easier topic for most students to deal with, and indeed many may
already have covered this material in earlier years. Students usually enjoy looking at
their own teeth, so you could begin the lesson with Worksheet 7.2 Checking your teeth.
However, this involves eating, so it may be better not to do this in a laboratory.
◆ You may have some human teeth that students can look at, alongside Figures 7.12 and
7.13. It is worth collecting some milk teeth and, if possible, sawing some of them in half
so that their internal structure can be seen. Dental X-rays are another potential source of
information, if you can obtain any.
◆ If available, use a three-dimensional model of the human body to show students the
different regions of the alimentary canal and their positions in the body.
◆ You may like to dissect a small mammal to show the alimentary canal, liver and pancreas.
◆ Use Worksheet 7.3 The structure of the digestive system to help students to learn the
positions and names of the organs in the digestive system.
◆ Use a piece of rubber tubing and a marble to illustrate how muscles squeezing inwards
cause a bolus of food to move through the alimentary canal.
◆ A piece of velvet or pile carpet can give students a good picture of how the villi in the small
intestine increase surface area.
◆ Activity 7.3 A model of absorption, could be carried out.

◆ It is very common for students to have difficulty with the concepts of digestion and
absorption. They fail to understand that molecules need to move from inside the
alimentary canal, through its walls, and into the blood (or lymph) before they can
considered to be truly inside the body.
◆ They may confuse ingestion with indigestion.
◆ It is very common for students to fail to understand that the alimentary canal is a closed
tube which runs, uninterrupted, from mouth to anus. They may think that food goes
through the pancreas and liver, or even directly to the kidneys. This misunderstanding can
lead to students making statements about the kidneys ‘excreting liquids from the foods that
we eat’.
◆ Some old textbooks describe enzymes being present in ‘intestinal juice’ in the small
intestine, but this is not correct. The enzymes in the small intestine come either from
pancreatic juice or from the cells covering the villi.
◆ Many textbooks imply that water is absorbed only in the colon. Most absorption of water
takes place in the small intestine, with only a relatively small quantity being absorbed in
the colon.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, 3, 4, 6
◆ Workbook exercise 7.2 Functions of the digestive system
◆ Workbook exercise 7.3 Tooth decay data analysis

◆ Workbook exercise 7.5 Vitamin D absorption
◆ Worksheet 7.2 Checking your teeth
◆ Worksheet 7.3 The structure of the digestive system
◆ Worksheet 7.4 Digestion vocabulary
Topic 3 Cholera and diarrhoea

Teaching ideas
◆ You could begin this section with a news report about a recent outbreak or epidemic of
cholera, and discuss with the students how it is caused by a bacterium, and the conditions
in which the disease is most likely to spread.
◆ Work through Figure 7.25 with students, explaining how cholera causes diarrhoea. Links
should be made with earlier work on osmosis.

◆ There are no common problems with this topic.
Homework ideas
◆ Coursebook questions 7.24 and 7.25
◆ Workbook exercise 7.4 Cholera patterns in Bangladesh

Teaching ideas
Chapter 8 Transport in plants
Syllabus sections covered: 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
Teaching resources
Topic
8.1 Plant transport 2 Activity 8.1
systems Identify the positions of
xylem vessels in roots,
stems and leaves
EOCQ 4
8.2 Water uptake 2 Activity 8.2 Worksheet 8.1
To see which part of a The pathway of
stem transports water water movement
and solutes through a plant
Questions 8.6 and 8.7
EOCQ 6
8.3 Transpiration 2 to 4 Activity 8.3 Exercise 8.1 Worksheet 8.2
To see which surface of A transpiration The mechanism of
a leaf loses most water experiment water movement
through a plant
Activity 8.4 Exercise 8.2
To measure the rate of Tissues in a root
transpiration of a potted
plant
Activity 8.5
Using a potometer
to comapre rates of
transpiration under
different conditions
EOCQs 1, 3
8.4 Transport of 2 EOCQs 2, 5 Exercise 8.3
manufactured Sources and sinks
food

Topic 1 Plant transport systems
Teaching ideas
◆ You could begin the lesson with Activity 8.1 Identify the positions of xylem vessels in roots,
stems and leaves.
◆ Activity 8.2 To see which part of a stem transports water and solutes could also be carried
out at this point. Students can relate what they see to the structures shown in Figure 8.7,
and discuss the positions of xylem in the stem and in roots. Students will probably know
the terms ‘xylem’, ‘phloem’ and ‘vascular bundle’ from their earlier work on leaves.
◆ If students are working at wooden desks, they will probably be able to see xylem vessels
in section.
◆ Micrographs and Figures 8.6 and 8.7 can be used to identify the positions of phloem.

◆ Students may find it difficult to visualise the three-dimensional arrangement of xylem
vessels from looking at a transverse section, and may therefore not appreciate that
continuous vessels run from the roots all the way up the stem and into the leaves.
Homework ideas
Topic 2 Water uptake

Teaching ideas
◆ Show students bean or other seedlings with root hairs – these are usually clearly visible if
the seeds are germinated in damp filter paper. Ask them what they think the root hairs do
and discuss the very large surface area they provide.
◆ Draw a diagram of a root hair cell on the board. Ask students to think back to what they
know about osmosis and to suggest how water gets inside a root hair cell.
◆ Use Figure 8.10 in the Coursebook to discuss how water moves from the outside of a
root to the centre and into the xylem vessels. Use Figure 8.11 to introduce the idea of the
transpiration stream.

◆ Students often do not realise that water has to move horizontally from the outside of the
root into its centre, before it can enter a xylem vessel.
Homework ideas
◆ Coursebook questions 8.6 and 8.7
◆ Worksheet 8.1 The pathway of water movement through a plant

Topic 3 Transpiration
Teaching ideas
◆ Transpiration is the driving force for the movement of water up a plant. This is a crucial
point for students to understand. Transpiration reduces hydrostatic pressure at the top of
xylem vessels, so that water flows up them from higher pressure regions at their base. Use
Figure 8.11 to introduce the idea of the transpiration stream.
◆ Students could do Activity 8.3 To see which surface of a leaf loses most water. They will
need to think back to what they know about the structure of leaves, and remember where
the stomata are situated.
◆ Students could set up Activity 8.4 To measure the rate of transpiration of a potted plant.
This will need to be revisited at regular intervals over the next few days.
◆ Activity 8.5 involves a potometer, but if you do not have one, it is easy to do this
experiment using a long glass tube, as described in the Notes.

◆ It is extremely common for students to fail to understand what makes water move up a
plant. They may have no idea at all, or they may think that it moves up by osmosis.
◆ Students often think that water is lost from leaves as a liquid, and fail to understand that it
evaporates from wet cell walls and then diffuses out through the stomata.
◆ Students may think that a large proportion of the water taken up is used in photosynthesis.
In fact, only a tiny proportion is used for this; almost all of it is lost by transpiration
through the leaves.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1 and 3
◆ Workbook exercise 8.1 A transpiration experiment
◆ Workbook exercise 8.2 Tissues in a root
◆ Workheet 8.2 The mechanism of water movement through a plant
Topic 4 Transport of manufactured food

Teaching ideas
◆ Remind students of the positions of xylem and phloem in roots, stems and leaves, and ask
them to tell you what is transported in phloem.
◆ Show students plants in various stages of growth – for example, a recently germinated seed,
an adult growing plant with green leaves, a potato tuber beginning to sprout. Ask them to
suggest where the main source of ‘food’ for the plant is made or stored. Introduce the word
‘source’. Then ask which parts of the plant need most ‘food’ – students should be able to
suggest the regions that are growing. Introduce the word ‘sink’.
◆ Discuss the fact that materials can be transported both up and down the plant in phloem
(and in different directions at different stages of growth), in contrast to xylem in which
transport is always from roots to stem.

◆ Students often think that glucose, not sucrose, is transported in phloem.
◆ They may not appreciate that the two transport systems in a plant (xylem and phloem) are
separate from one another.
◆ They may find difficulty with the concept of different parts of a plant changing their roles
from sources to sinks at different times of year. Even those who do begin to grasp this idea
may make the mistake of saying that leaves send sucrose to roots ‘in the winter’ (because they
appreciate that roots need nutrients then), rather than in the summer, in preparation for winter.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 8.3 Sources and sinks

Teaching ideas
Chapter 9 Transport in animals
Teaching resources
Topic
9.1 Circulatory 1 Exercise 9.3
systems Double and
single circulatory
systems
9.2 The heart 3 to 5 Activity 9.1 Exercise 9.1 Worksheet 9.1
Dissecting a heart Risk of heart Heart beat
attack
Questions 9.1 to 9.12 to 9.19
Exercise 9.2
EOCQ 7
The heart in a
Activity 9.2 fetus
To find the effect of exercise
on the rate of heart beat
EOCQ 6
9.3 Blood vessels 2 Questions 9.20 to 9.26 Worksheet 9.2
Blood vessels
EOCQs 1, 4
9.4 Blood 2 Questions 9.27 to 9.35 Exercise 9.4
Changes in the
EOCQs 2, 3, 5
blood system at
high altitude
9.3, 9.4 Lymph and 1 Questions 9.36 to 9.41 Worksheet 9.3
tissue fluid Blood, tissue fluid
and lymph
Worksheet 9.4
Comparing blood
plasma, tissue fluid
and lymph
Topic 1 Circulatory systems

Teaching ideas
◆ Look at Figure 9.2 in the Coursebook with students, and discuss the pathway taken by the
blood through the heart and to the lungs and the rest of the body. Discuss the meaning of
the term ‘double circulation’. Compare this with the single circulation shown in Figure 9.3.
◆ Workbook exercise 9.3 Double and single circulatory systems is a good test of how well
students have understood this concept.

◆ Students often do not appreciate that the blood has to go all the way round the body in
order to get from one side of the heart to the other.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 9.3 Double and single circulatory systems
Topic 2 The heart

Teaching ideas
◆ If you and your students would enjoy it, a dissection of a heart would be very worthwhile
at this point. You could do this as a demonstration, or provide sheep hearts for groups of
students to dissect themselves, using Activity 9.1 Dissecting a heart. If this is not possible,
use a three-dimensional model of a heart to demonstrate its structure.
◆ Students could listen to each other’s hearts, with a stethoscope if you have one, or with an
ear placed to the chest of a friend. As a class, talk about what they can hear, and lead into a
discussion of what happens during one heart beat, using Figure 9.11 in the Coursebook for
reference.
◆ Students can do Activity 9.2 To find the effect of exercise on the rate of heart beat.
◆ Discuss the role of the coronary arteries in supplying oxygenated blood to the heart
muscle. Ask students if they know what they should do to maintain a healthy heart. (Take
care: some may have parents or other relatives who have died from a heart attack, so be
sensitive.) Build up a list of ‘do’s and don’ts’.

◆ Students often fail to appreciate the role of the heart muscle in contracting and therefore
squeezing the blood in the heart, raising its pressure and pushing it out into the arteries.
◆ They may think that the two sides of the heart beat in succession, rather than in unison.
◆ It is very common for students to think that the valves in the heart open and close actively,
rather than being pushed open or closed by the pressure of the blood.
◆ Students may not fully appreciate that heart muscle needs a constant supply of oxygen
(brought by the coronary arteries) in order to respire, providing energy so that the muscle
can contract. This is fundamental to a proper understanding of coronary heart disease.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter question 6 and 7
◆ Workbook exercise 9.1 Risk of heart attack
◆ Workbook exercise 9.2 The heart in a fetus
◆ Worksheet 9.1 Heart beat

Topic 3 Blood vessels
Teaching ideas
◆ Show students micrographs of transverse sections of an artery and a vein. (You should
be able to find suitable images on the Internet.) Ask them to tell you the differences they
can see between them, and build up a comparison table on the board. Follow this with a
discussion of the functions of arteries and veins.
◆ If students are studying the Supplement, ask them to suggest links between the structures
and functions of arteries and veins.
◆ Discuss the structure and function of capillaries, emphasising their tiny size compared with
arteries and veins. Show students micrographs of capillaries in tissues.
◆ Display a large image of a diagram such as that in Figure 9.17 or 9.18, and discuss the
names of the vessels supplying the different organs. Using Figure 9.17, ask students to work
out how blood could get from one point in the body to another – they can think of the
circulatory system as being like a one-way traffic system in a town.

◆ It is very common for students to think that arteries have to have thick walls because
they are carrying oxygenated blood. They may think that oxygenated blood has a higher
pressure than deoxygenated blood.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 9.2 Blood vessels
Topic 4 Blood
Teaching ideas
◆ Ask students to look at blood vessels near the surface of the skin in their wrists or hands.
(These may not be visible in all students, depending on skin colour, so take care not to
offend.) They should be able to see that the blood in the very thin-walled vessel looks
blue. Tell them the vessels they are looking at are veins, and discuss why the blood looks
blue, and why it looks red if they cut themselves (the haemoglobin quickly combines with
oxygen in the air to become bright red oxyhaemoglobin).
◆ Show students slides or micrographs of blood films, and help them to pick out red cells,
white cells, platelets and plasma. They may be surprised to find out that the only red part of
blood is the red cells, and that plasma is straw-coloured. Note: it is now against health and
safety regulations in most countries for students to observe their own fresh blood, or blood
from another source.
◆ If suitable images can be found, ask students to make a list of the differences in appearance
of red blood cells and white blood cells.
◆ Discuss the functions of red blood cells in oxygen transport, platelets in clotting, white cells
in the immune response and plasma in the transport of dissolved substances and heat.

◆ It is very common for students to confuse red blood cells with haemoglobin.
◆ Students may think that the large surface-area-to-volume ratio of red blood cells allows
them to carry more oxygen. This is incorrect – a spherical cell would be able to carry more
oxygen than a biconcave disc. The biconcave shape provides a large surface area to allow
oxygen to diffuse into or out of the cell quickly.
◆ Students sometimes think that red blood cells transport glucose.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 9.4 Changes in the blood system at high altitude
Topic 5 Lymph and tissue fluid

Teaching ideas
◆ Explain to students that capillaries have leaky walls, and discuss Figure 9.27 with them.
They will see the need for the leaked fluid to be returned to the blood system, and this can
lead into a discussion of the lymphatic system.
◆ Show students photographs of a person who has oedema, and discuss how it is caused by a
build up of tissue fluid that is not returned to the blood.

◆ Students often find the concept of lymph difficult, as they cannot see lymphatic capillaries
or lymph.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 9.3 Blood, tissue fluid and lymph
◆ Worksheet 9.4 Comparing blood plasma, tissue fluid and lymph

Teaching ideas
Chapter 10 Pathogens and immunity
Teaching resources
Topic
10 Pathogens; body 2 Questions 10.1 to 10.8 Exercise 10.1
defences Food poisoning in
EOCQ 1
the USA
Exercise 10.2
Waste disposal in
Australia
10 The immune 3 to 5 Questions 10.9 to 10.11 Exercise 10.3 Worksheet 10.1
system Eradicating polio The immune
EOCQs 2, 3, 4, 5
system
Worksheet 10.2
Defence against
disease
Topic 1 Pathogens: body defences

Teaching ideas
◆ With the class, build up a list of about 20 diseases or illnesses on the board. Then ask
students: which ones can be caught from someone else? Explain that these are called
transmissible diseases, and that they are caused by microscopic organisms that can pass
from one person to another. These organisms are called pathogens. You may also like to
briefly explain the four main types of pathogen, which are listed in Table 10.1.
◆ Ask students to think of different ways in which pathogens might get inside the body.
Use their ideas to construct a simple classification of methods of entry, involving direct
and indirect transmission.
◆ Now that students know how pathogens can get into the body, they can begin to think
about how the body tries to prevent this from happening. Figure 10.5 summarises these
methods.
◆ Good food hygiene is important in reducing disease transmission. You may be able to take
students to visit the school kitchens, where someone might be able to give a talk about how
they try to ensure that the food they supply does not contain pathogens or transmit illness.
Workbook exercise 10.1 Food poisoning in the USA, could be done at this point.

◆ Waste disposal is a big problem in all countries. You may be able to take students on a visit
to a well-managed landfill site, where they can learn about how the site is constructed and
maintained in order to reduce the change of diseases being transmitted. Sewage treatment
can be mentioned here, but it is suggested that this is dealt with more fully later in the
course (Chapter 22).

◆ Students may confuse the vector of a disease (e.g. a mosquito) with the pathogen that
causes it.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 10.1 Food poisoning in the USA
◆ Workbook exercise 10.2 Waste disposal in Australia
Topic 2 The immune system

Teaching ideas
◆ The immune system is extremely complex, and it is important to keep this topic quite
simple at this stage. Students do not need to know about B cells and T cells. Explain how
exposure to a particular pathogen elicits production of specific antibodies. Students may
enjoy producing posters or short presentations to explain this process.
◆ The production of memory cells explains why we often become immune to a disease after
having it once, and the same thing happens when vaccinations are given. You could show
the students the vaccination schedule that is used in your country, and ask them if they
remember having any vaccinations. If there is resistance to vaccination in your country,
find news reports about this and discuss the reasons behind it.
◆ Explain to students how breast-feeding transfers antibodies to a baby, and ask them to
suggest why this immunity does not last very long. They should be able to tell you that,
without memory cells, immunity is only temporary. This can lead to a comparison of active
and passive immunity.
◆ There are many different auto-immune diseases, and you will need to treat this topic
carefully in case a family member of a student has such a disease.

◆ Students frequently think that antibodies are cells.
◆ They confuse antibodies, antigens and antibiotics.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 2, 3, 4, 5
◆ Workbook exercise 10.3 Eradicating polio
◆ Worksheet 10.1 The immune system
◆ Worksheet 10.2 Defence against disease

Teaching ideas
Chapter 11 Respiration and gas exchange
Syllabus sections covered: 11, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3
Teaching resources
Topic
12.1,12.2, Aerobic and 4 to 6 Activity 11.1 Exercise 11.1 Worksheet 11.1
12.3 anaerobic Investigating heat Effect of Aerobic and
respiration production by germinating temperature on the anaerobic
peas rate of respiration respiration
Activity 11.2 Exercise 11.2 Worksheet 11.2
To show the uptake of The effect of Respiration
oxygen during aerobic animals and equations
respiration plants on the
carbon dioxide
Activity 11.3
concentration in
Investigating the production
water
of carbon dioxide by
anaerobic respiration Exercise 11.3
A simple
Activity 11.4
respirometer
Comparing the energy
content of two kinds of food
EOCQ 1
11 Gas exchange 2 to 3 Activity 11.5 Exercise 11.4
in humans Examining lungs Gas exchange
surfaces in rats
EOCQs 2, 4
11 Breathing 2 to 4 Activity 11.6
Modelling how the
diaphragm helps with
breathing
Activity 11.7
Gas exchange in small animals
Activity 11.8
Comparing the carbon
dioxide content of inspired
and expired air
Activity 11.9
exercise on rate and depth of
breathing
EOCQs 3, 5, 6

Topic 1 Aerobic and anaerobic respiration
Teaching ideas
◆ Ask students why living organisms need energy, encouraging them to think about
individual cells as well as the whole organism. Build up a list similar to the one on page 141
in the Coursebook.
◆ Ask students where they get energy from, working towards the idea of respiration as the
way in which energy is released from nutrient molecules (you could limit this to glucose)
inside cells. You could use what they have learnt about combustion in chemistry as a
comparison.
◆ Activity 11.1 Heat production in germinating peas, is a good illustration of the release of
heat energy from living organisms. This is best done as a demonstration, and will need
leaving for a day or so before results can be obtained.
◆ Activity 11.4 Comparing the energy content of two kinds of foods, involves measuring
the energy released when food is burnt. This is a good illustration of how energy can be
released from food by oxidation, and you could demonstrate the basic technique at this
point, leaving the actual planning activity until later.
◆ Students will probably already be familiar with the equation for aerobic respiration, but
the two types of anaerobic respiration may be less well known. When these have been
explained, Worksheet 11.1 could be used to test how well students have understood these
concepts.
◆ Activity 11.2 To show the uptake of oxygen during aerobic respiration uses a fairly simple
respirometer to measure oxygen uptake, but this is still a difficult piece of apparatus to
understand, and it is worth spending some time ensuring that students appreciate how it
works before asking them to collect and interpret results. Workbook exercise 11.3 A simple
respirometer, gives further practice.
◆ Activity 11.3 Investigating the production of carbon dioxide by anaerobic respiration may
already have been done by students at an earlier stage. If so, then you could ask them to do
question A6 instead of the basic activity.

◆ Students often think that respiration uses energy.
◆ They confuse digestion and respiration.
◆ They do not appreciate that respiration takes place inside all living cells.
◆ They confuse the two types of anaerobic respiration, thinking that both produce
carbon dioxide.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 11.1 Effect of temperature on the rate of respiration
◆ Workbook exercise 11.2 The effect of animals and plants on the carbon dioxide
concentration in water
◆ Workbook exercise 11.3 A simple respirometer
◆ Worksheet 11.1 Aerobic and anaerobic respiration
◆ Worksheet 11.2 Respiration equations

Topic 2 Gas exchange in humans
Teaching ideas
◆ Activity 11.5 Examining lungs, makes an attention-grabbing start to this topic.
◆ Students may already know the names of most of the structures in Figure 11.2, so you
could use a large, unlabelled diagram and ask the class to add labels to it.
◆ Explain how air moves down to the lungs by mass flow, but that individual molecules move
across the wall of the alveoli into the blood by diffusion.

◆ Students may confuse bronchi and bronchioles
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 11.4 Gas exchange surfaces in rats
Topic 3 Breathing
Teaching ideas
◆ Students often have trouble in understanding how movements of the ribs and diaphragm
cause air to be drawn into and pushed out of the lungs. Activity 11.6 Modelling how the
diaphragm helps with breathing, can help students to understand this topic.
◆ This is a suitable point at which comparisons of inspired and expired air can be made.
Activity 11.7 Gas exchange in small animals is always very memorable for students.
Activity 11.8 Comparing the carbon dioxide content of inspired air and expired air is
worthwhile, and very easy to do.
◆ Investigating the effect of exercise on rate and depth of breathing, Activity 11.9, can also be
dealt with now. Students will need to think back to what they have learnt about anaerobic
respiration in human cells in order to explain oxygen debt.

◆ Students frequently confuse cause and effect when attempting to explain how breathing
movements are caused.
◆ They may think that muscles respire entirely anaerobically during exercise, rather than just
‘topping up’ the energy released by aerobic respiration with extra released by anaerobic
respiration.
◆ They confuse heart rate with breathing rate.
Homework ideas

Teaching ideas
Chapter 12 Excretion
Syllabus sections covered: 13
Teaching resources
Topic
13 Excretory 1 Questions 12.1 to 12.3 Worksheet 12.1
products Excretion
EOCQ 1
crossword
13 The human 2 to 4 Activity 12.1 Exercise 12.1 Worksheet 12.2
excretory system The structure of the The human Excretory products
kidney excretory system and their removal
Dialysis
EOCQs 2, 3
Topic 1 Excretory products

Teaching ideas
◆ Students have already learnt about one excretory product – carbon dioxide produced in
respiration – and this can be used to explain to them what excretion is, and how it differs
from egestion.
◆ The production of nitrogenous waste involves an understanding of the structure of proteins
(a string of amino acids) and the knowledge that amino acids contain the element nitrogen.
It is well worth recapping this information, perhaps quite extensively, before asking
students to think about deamination. Figure 12.3 is very complex, so something similar
could perhaps be built up step by step on the board or whiteboard, allowing students to
think about each stage in the process in turn.

◆ Excretion is frequently confused with egestion.
◆ Students very often think that deamination happens in the kidneys.
◆ They may think that sweating is done in order to excrete urea and salts; in fact, these
substances are lost simply because the fluid secreted onto the skin to cool by evaporation
happens to contain them.

Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 12.1 Excretion crossword
Topic 2 The human excretory system

Teaching ideas
◆ Activity 12.1 The structure of the kidney, makes an attention-grabbing start to this topic.
◆ Care must be taken not to go into too much detail about the structure and function of a
nephron. Use the level of the detail in the Coursebook as guidance.
◆ Before dealing with dialysis, it may be worth recapping on students’ earlier work on
diffusion and osmosis.

◆ Students confuse urine and urea.
◆ They often appear to think that there is a direct connection from the alimentary canal to
the kidneys, along which waste liquids flow.
◆ They confuse ureters and urethra.
◆ As in osmosis, they may find it difficult to think of individual molecules and ions when
considering dialysis.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 12.1 The human excretory system
◆ Workbook exercise 12.2 Dialysis
◆ Worksheet 12.2 Excretory products and their removal

Teaching ideas
Chapter 13 Coordination and response
Teaching resources
Topic
14.1 Coordination 2 to 4 Activity 13.1 Exercise 13.1 Worksheet 13.1
in animals; The Measuring reaction time Caffeine and The structure of a
human nervous using a ruler reaction time neurone
system
Activity 13.2 Worksheet 13.2
To measure mean Reflex actions and
reaction time voluntary actions
EOCQs 3, 4, 5
14.2 Receptors and 4 to 6 Activity 13.3 Exercise 13.2 Worksheet 13.3
sense organs; the Can you always see the Accommodation Structure and
eye image? in the eye function in the eye
Activity 13.4 Worksheet 13.4
Looking at human eyes Focusing
Activity 13.5
Dissecting a sheep’s eye
EOCQs 1, 6
14.3 The endocrine 1 Questions 13.19 to 13.22
system
14.5 Coordination and 4 to 6 Activity 13.6 Exercise 13.3
response in plants To find out how shoots Auxin and tropism
respond to light
Activity 13.7
To find out how roots
respond to gravity
Activity 13.8
To find out how auxin
affects shoots
Activity 13.9
To find out which part
of a shoot is sensitive to
light
EOCQ 2

Topic 1 Coordination in animals: The human nervous system
Teaching ideas
◆ Once the students are settled, ask them all to stand up and then to sit down. Ask them how
and why they did it. Use their answers to discuss the roles of receptors (in this case, their
ears), coordination (the brain, where the response was decided on) and the effectors (in
this case, the muscles they used in standing up). Explain that all animal coordination relies
on receptors, coordination and effectors.
◆ If available, show students a model of the human nervous system. (Note that the names and
functions of the different parts of the brain are not required.)
◆ Look at diagrams of neurones and discuss how they are similar to all animal cells, and how
they are adapted to the functions of conducting nerve impulses. (Avoid saying they carry
‘messages’.)
◆ Activity 13.1 Measuring reaction time using a ruler uses very little apparatus and is a
good starting point for planning exercises. You could also use one of the many sites on the
Internet that measure reaction time.
◆ If you do Activity 13.2 To measure mean reaction time, you could ask one of the members
of the ring to turn around with their back to the rest of the group. Show how the nerve
impulse travels up their arm, into the spinal cord, up to their brain, back down to the spinal
cord and then into the muscle in their other hand. You could perhaps place a large sheet
of white paper against their back and draw the pathway on it. This can help students to
understand what is being shown in stylised diagrams such as Figures 13.4 and 13.5.

◆ Surprisingly, students sometimes believe that neurones travel around the body.
◆ They may think that reflex actions ‘do not involve the brain’. This is not correct; many reflex
arcs, including the iris reflex that they will learn about later, pass through the brain.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 3, 4, and 5
◆ Worksheet 13.1 The structure of a neurone
◆ Worksheet 13.2 Reflex actions and voluntary actions
◆ Workbook exercise 13.1 Caffeine and reaction time
Topic 2 Receptors and sense organs: the eye

Teaching ideas
◆ Activity 13.4 Looking at human eyes, makes a good starting point for this lesson.
◆ A model of an eye is very helpful, as it is a difficult structure to understand from a simple
diagram of a section, such as is shown in Figure 13.10.
◆ Do Activity 13.5 Dissecting a sheep’s eye. Most students greatly enjoy dissecting an eye
(despite many initial protests). Alternatively, you could do this as a demonstration.
◆ Activity 13.3 Can you always see the image? This can be used as a starting point to discuss
the function of the retina.
◆ The way in which the ciliary muscle, suspensory ligaments and lens can change the focus
of the eye is difficult to understand, but you can illustrate the effect of different sizes and
shapes of lenses on parallel beams of light using apparatus borrowed from the physics
department, who will probably give you advice on how to set it up and use it. Alternatively
(or as well), a large, round-bottomed flask filled with fluorescin (a yellow–green fluorescent
liquid) can be used to illustrate focusing. If you shine a narrow beam of light horizontally
onto the flask, you will be able to see the path of the light rays through the liquid. Placing
lenses of different types on the front surface of the rounded glass illustrates how the lens
bends light rays. You can try using different combinations of lenses to bring parallel rays of
light to a focus on the back surface of the flask.
◆ Step 4 in Activity 13.4 illustrates the pupil reflex, and this can be discussed at this point.

◆ Students often forget that the light-receptive cells are in the retina, perhaps because this is
at the back of the eye; they may think they are in the lens or elsewhere.
◆ They confuse the iris reflex and accommodation.
◆ They find it difficult to understand how contraction of the ciliary muscles can result in less
tension on the lens.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, and 6
◆ Workbook exercise 13.2 Accommodation in the eye
◆ Worksheet 13.3 Structure and function in the eye
◆ Worksheet 13.4 Focusing
Topic 3 The endocrine system

Teaching ideas
◆ Use a big outline of the human body to show the positions of the endocrine glands
illustrated in Figure 13.18.
◆ Ask students to tell you what happens in their body when they are very excited or
frightened. Use this to explain the effects that adrenaline has, and how these help the body
to prepare for action.
◆ Build up a comparison between nerves and hormones, using questioning, as a class exercise.

◆ Students generally have no difficulty in understanding about hormones and the endocrine
system.
Homework ideas

Topic 4 Coordination and response in plants
Teaching ideas
◆ Show students a plant that has been left in a window and is growing towards the light. (They
could possibly set this up in the previous lesson.) Alternatively, plants or young seedlings
can be placed in a box with a slit in one side. Discuss why it is useful for the plant to respond
to unidirectional light in this way. Introduce the term ‘tropism’ and its definition.
◆ Similarly, a plant could be left on its side, as in Figure 13.21 in the Coursebook, to illustrate
the response of a shoot to gravity.
◆ Activity 13.6 To find out how shoots respond to light, needs to be left for a few days before
results will be obtained. If you do not have a clinostat, the dish can simply be turned by
hand several times a day, ensuring that approximately equal time is spent in each position.
◆ Students can use ideas from Activity 13.6 to plan their own experiment in Activity 13.7 To
find out how roots respond to gravity.
◆ Activity 13.8 To find out how auxin affects shoots, and Activity 13.9 To find out which part
of a shoot is sensitive to light, both require maize (or other cereal seeds) to be germinated
before the lesson, so forward planning is required here. See the notes on these activities.

◆ Students often find it difficult to imagine receptors and effectors in plants.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 13.3 Auxin and tropism

Teaching ideas
Chapter 14 Homeostasis
Syllabus section covered: 14.4
Teaching resources
Topic
14.4 Maintaining 3 to 4 Activity 14.1 Exercise 14.1 Worksheet 14.1
the internal Experiment to Endotherms and Keeping warm
environment; investigate the effect of ectotherms
Worksheet 14.2
control of body size on rate of cooling
Surviving
temperature
Activity 14.2 hypothermia
Investigating the effect
of evaporation on the
rate of cooling
EOCQ 3
14.4 Control of 2 EOCQs 1, 2, 4 Exercise 14.2
blood glucose Diabetes
concentration
Topic 1 Maintaining the internal environment; control of body temperature

Teaching ideas
◆ A quick quiz testing students’ understanding of the difference between heat and
temperature could be helpful to you – it is worth checking what they have learnt about
these concepts in physics lessons.
◆ Students may have used the term ‘cold-blooded’ to describe animals such as reptiles or
fish. Ask them what this means, and guide the discussion towards the concepts of
endotherms and ectotherms. (Note that the syllabus does not require them to know these
terms, however.)
◆ Skin structure can be taught using a model, as well as projecting images of microscopic
sections.
◆ Activity 14.1 Experiment to investigate the effect of size on rate of cooling, may have been
done by students at an earlier stage, or in physics lessons. Activity 14.2 Investigating the
effect of evaporation on the rate of cooling, asks students to build on this to plan their
own experiment.

◆ Students often confuse heat with temperature.
◆ They may not understand that when you ‘feel cold’, your internal body temperature is likely
to be normal.
◆ Students do not always appreciate that it is the evaporation of water from sweat that has the
cooling effect. Many think that sweat itself is cold, and therefore makes the skin feel cold.
◆ It is very common for students to think that blood vessels move up and down through
the skin.
◆ They think that capillaries are able to change their diameter, rather than this happening as
a result of the actions of muscles in the walls of arterioles.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 14.1 Keeping warm
◆ Worksheet 14.2 Surviving hypothermia
◆ Workbook exercise 14.1 Endotherms and ectotherms
Topic 2 Control of blood glucose concentration

Teaching ideas
◆ If you know that a student has diabetes, talk to them in the days before this lesson to find
out if they are happy for their condition to be discussed, or if they would prefer not to be
brought into the limelight. If they agree, you could ask them to tell the class how they test
their blood glucose levels, and why it is important that the blood glucose concentration is
kept constant. However, be very careful not to put any pressure on a student to do this.
◆ A model of the body showing the position of the pancreas and liver can help students to
visualise how these two organs act together in the control of blood glucose.

◆ Glucagon and glycogen are often confused. It is essential that students learn to spell these
words correctly.
◆ Students very frequently think that it is the hypothalamus that senses changes in blood
glucose concentration, not the pancreas.
◆ They may think that insulin acts as an enzyme, breaking down glucose or changing it to
glycogen. This is incorrect; insulin stimulates the liver to take action.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, 2, and 4
◆ Workbook exercise 14.2 Diabetes

Teaching ideas
Chapter 15 Drugs
Teaching resources
Topic
15.1, 15.2 What is a drug?; 1
Medicinal drugs
15.3 Misuse of drugs; 3 EOCQs 1, 2, 3 Exercise 15.1 Worksheet 15.1
Tobacco smoking Alcohol and traffic Cigarette smoking
accidents
Worksheet 15.2
Exercise 15.2 Cigarette smoking
Smoking and life and lung cancer
expectancy
Topic 1 What is a drug? Medicinal drugs

Teaching ideas
◆ Ask students if they have taken any drugs. Use their responses to list some examples of
drugs that are used in medicine, drugs that are socially acceptable (for example, caffeine)
and drugs that are abused. Discuss a definition of the term ‘drug’.
◆ Antibiotics can be discussed in relation to the work done on infectious disease in
Chapter 10. It is recommended that the development of antibiotic resistance is dealt with
when covering natural selection, in Chapter 19.

◆ Students confuse antibiotics with antibodies.
Homework ideas
◆ Produce a poster explaining what a drug is.

Topic 2 Misuse of drugs
Teaching ideas
◆ Leaflets or other free material may be available to use in lessons about misuse of drugs, but
you will need to check these carefully to ensure that they are suitable.
◆ Worksheet 15.2 Cigarette smoking and lung cancer, is a good data handling exercise and
could be used in class.
◆ Workbook exercise 15.2 Smoking and life expectancy, is quite difficult and may be best
done as a group or class exercise.
◆ Students may like to use the Internet to find examples of the misuse of anabolic steroids
in sport.

◆ Students may confuse reaction time and reaction speed, which can result in statements
such as ‘drinking alcohol reduces your reaction time’.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 1, 2, 3, and 4
◆ Workbook exercise 15.1 Alcohol and traffic accidents
◆ Worksheet 15.1 Cigarette smoking

Teaching ideas
Chapter 16 Reproduction in plants
Teaching resources
Topic
16.1, 16.2 Asexual 1 to 2 Questions 16.1 to 16.12
reproduction;
EOCQ 2
sexual
reproduction
16.3 Sexual 2 to 4 Activity 16.1 Exercise 16.1
reproduction in Investigating the Grass pollen
flowering plants: structure of a flower
Exercise 16.2
Pollination
Activity 16.2 Pollination in
Pollination forests of different
shapes and sizes
EOCQ 5
16.3 Sexual 1 to 3 Activity 16.3 Worksheet 16.1
reproduction in Growing pollen tubes Plant reproduction
flowering plants:
Questions 16.18 to 16.20 Worksheet 16.2
Fertilisation and
Self- and
seed formation EOCQ 1
cross-pollination
16.3 Seed germination 1 to 3 Activity 16.4
To find the conditions
necessary for the
germination of tomato
seeds
Activity 16.5
To find the effect of
storage time on the
germination rate of
seeds
EOCQ 3
16.3 Comparing 1 Questions 16.26 to 16.27
asexual and sexual
EOCQ 4
reproduction

Topic 1 Asexual reproduction; sexual reproduction
Teaching ideas
◆ Show students at least one kind of plant reproducing asexually – whatever is available
locally. You may be able to demonstrate several different methods of asexual reproduction
taking place. Ask them what all of these methods of reproduction seem to have in
common, looking for the idea that there is always only one parent. You could briefly
introduce the idea of cell division by mitosis here, although a full treatment of this is best
left until later, in Chapter 18.
◆ For comparison, now show a similar collection of plants with flowers and / or fruits.
Students may already know about flowers and pollen, so use questioning to find out what
they already understand. Explain that sexual reproduction always involves gametes and
fertilisation, and discuss in outline where the male and female gametes are in a flower, and
how they get together. You can also briefly mention fertilisation in humans here, as well, in
terms of the numbers of chromosomes in eggs and sperms, and how fertilisation restores
the ‘correct’ numbers of chromosomes (Figure 16.3).
◆ A comparison of asexual and sexual reproduction is best left until later, once students have
better knowledge of how these processes take place in flowering plants.

◆ Students may think that sexual reproduction always involves two parents. This is not
correct, as many flowers produce both male and female gametes and can fertilise
themselves.
Homework ideas
Topic 2 Sexual reproduction in flowering plants: Pollination

Teaching ideas
◆ Students will enjoy ‘dissecting’ a flower and sticking each of the parts into their notebooks.
Activity 16.1 Investigating the structure of a flower, describes how to do this.
◆ Activity 16.2 Pollination, is a planning exercise. Even if you do not wish to spend time on
this activity, it is strongly recommended that you take students outside to observe insects
and birds pollinating flowers.
◆ Anthers and pollen grains can be observed using a hand lens or a microscope, but take care
with students who may be allergic to pollen.
◆ Students should see examples of wind-pollinated flowers, and compare these with insect-
pollinated or bird-pollinated flowers.
◆ Worksheet 16.2 Self- and cross-pollination, could be done now, but may be best left until
after the next topic has been covered.

◆ Students may say that pollen grains are the male gametes, which is not correct. Pollen
grains contain the male gametes.
◆ They may think that insects and birds deliberately carry pollen from one flower to another.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 16.1 Grass pollen
◆ Workbook exercise 16.2 Pollination in forests of different shapes and sizes
Topic 3 Sexual reproduction in flowering plants: Fertilisation and

seed formation
Teaching ideas
◆ Activity 16.3 Growing pollen tubes, usually produces at least some successes, but some
groups may not be able to see pollen tubes on their own slides and may need to look at
those grown by other groups.
◆ Note that although students should learn how the male gamete reaches and fuses with the
female gamete, and that the ovule becomes a seed, they do not need to know any more
detail of seed formation.

◆ It is very common for students to think that the entire pollen grain travels down through
the style to the ovule.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 16.1 Plant reproduction
◆ Worksheet 16.2 Self- and cross-pollination
Topic 4 Seed germination

Teaching ideas
◆ Students should have the opportunity to examine the structure of large seeds, such as
beans, at first hand. This is easiest if the beans are soaked beforehand.
◆ Note that knowledge of the structure and dispersal of fruits is not required.
◆ Students should carry out an investigation into the conditions required for the germination
of seeds, for example Activity 16.4. (Note that most seeds that we grow in gardens and
as crops do not require light for germination, but many others do.) This can be used as a
starting point for a planning exercise, such as Activity 16.5 To find the effect of storage time
on the germination rate of seeds.

Homework ideas
Topic 5 Comparing asexual and sexual reproduction

Teaching ideas
◆ Now that students know how plants reproduce sexually, they can begin to think about why
some plants do this, others reproduce asexually, and many use both methods.
◆ You could arrange a visit to a local nursery where large numbers of plants are produced by
vegetative methods.

◆ Students may suggest that either asexual or sexual reproduction is quicker than the other.
Neither is universally true.
Homework ideas

Teaching ideas
Chapter 17 Reproduction in humans
Teaching resources
Topic
16.4 Human 2 to 3 Questions 17.1 to 17.2 Exercise 17.1
reproductive Gametes
EOCQs 2, 5
organs
16.4 Fertilisation and 3 to 4 Questions 17.3 to 17.13 Exercise 17.2
development Gas exchange in
EOCQs 3, 4
the placenta and
lungs
Exercise 17.3
Breast-feeding
statistics
16.5 The menstrual 2 Questions 17.14 to 17.18 Worksheet 17.1
cycle The menstrual
EOCQ 1
cycle
16.6 Birth control 2 Exercise 17.4
Birth control data
16.7 Sexually 2 to 3 EOCQ 6 Worksheet 17.2
transmitted AIDS in the
infections Caribbean
Topic 1 Human reproductive organs

Coursebook sections 17.1
Teaching ideas
◆ If available, three-dimensional models are very helpful in understanding the relative
positions and sizes of the reproductive organs.
◆ Workbook exercise 17.1 Gametes, gives practice in thinking about how particular cells are
adapted for their functions.

◆ Students may already have some knowledge of this topic before the lessons, but this is often
muddled and incorrect.
◆ They may have a tendency to use everyday language, rather than scientific language.

Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 17.1 Gametes
Topic 2 Fertilisation and development

Teaching ideas
◆ You may be able to show students video clips of sea urchin sperm fertilising eggs. Search on
the internet for ‘sea urchin fertilisation’ videos.
◆ Ensure that students understand that fertilisation actually happens when the nuclei of the
male and female gametes fuse.
◆ There are many new terms to learn in this topic, and these can cause confusion. Use
Figure 17.12 as an overall summary of the sequence, and to make sure students know
where each of the processes takes place.
◆ Note that no detail of the structure of the placenta is required, but students will need some
kind of image to help them to understand how it functions.

◆ Students may think that only the chromosomes of the sperm enter the egg.
◆ There is often confusion about the term ‘zygote’. This is the cell that is produced
immediately as the result of the fusion of the sperm and egg.
◆ Students may think that fertilisation happens in the vagina, cervix or uterus, or even in
the ovary.
◆ It is common for them to believe that the mother’s blood mixes with the fetus’s blood in
the placenta.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 17.2 Gas exchange in the placenta and lungs
◆ Workbook exercise 17.3 Breast-feeding statistics
Topic 3 The menstrual cycle

Teaching ideas
◆ It is probably best to deal first with the changes in the lining of the uterus, and then with
the hormonal changes that bring this about. The various diagrams in Figure 17.20 need to
be dealt with step by step, rather than trying to understand all of them at once.

◆ Students often use the term ‘uterus wall’ when they mean ‘uterus lining’.
◆ They may think that the pituitary gland secretes oestrogen or progesterone.

Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 17.1 The menstrual cycle
Topic 4 Birth control

Teaching ideas
◆ You may be able to arrange a visit by someone from the local health centre who can
demonstrate methods of birth control.

Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 17.4 Birth control data
Topic 5 Sexually transmitted infections

Teaching ideas
◆ Local health centres may have posters or leaflets that you can use for this topic.
◆ It is a good idea to find out what students think they already know about HIV/AIDS, as
there are many entrenched misconceptions in some countries. It may be difficult for them
to leave these behind them as they learn to think about the topic scientifically.

◆ Students may think that AIDS is caused by genes, because they know it can be transmitted
from mother to child.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 17.2 AIDS in the Caribbean

Teaching ideas
Chapter 18 Inheritance
Syllabus sections covered: 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 17.5
Teaching resources
Topic
17.1, 17.3, Chromosomes; 3 to 4 Questions 18.1 and 18.2 Worksheet 18.1
17.4 cell division Mitosis and
meiosis
17.2 Genes and alleles 2 Questions 18.3 to 18.7 Worksheet 18.2
Genotypes and
EOCQs 1, 2
phenotypes
17.5 Inheriting genes 3 to 5 Activity 18.1 Exercise 18.1
‘Breeding’ beads Fruit fly
inheritance
Exercise 18.2
EOCQs 4, 5, 6, 8
Black and chestnut
horses
Exercise 18.3
Pedigree
17.5 Sex inheritance; 2 to 3 Question 18.15 Exercise 18.4
sex linkage Sex linkage in fruit
EOCQ 7
flies
17.2 DNA and protein 1 to 2 EOCQ 3
synthesis
Topic 1 Chromosomes; cell division

Coursebook sections 18.1
Teaching ideas
◆ Show students scanning electronmicrographs of chromosomes (there are plenty on the
Internet). Explain that each one is a long molecule of DNA, various sections of which
are genes coding for the production of proteins. Discussion of karyotypes, such as those
in Figures 18.3 and 18.4 in the Coursebook, will also help students to understand what
chromosomes are. It is worth emphasising that the chromosomes don’t really line up like
this, but that these images have been produced by ‘cutting out’ images of each chromosome
and rearranging them.
◆ Mitosis can be modelled using long pieces of coloured string, wire or other material to
represent chromosomes. Use a small number – say six pieces, making up three pairs. Place
them on the bench top, or perhaps on an overhead projector, and surround them by two
concentric circles of string to represent the nuclear envelope and cell membrane. Produce
an identical partner for each ‘chromosome’, and wrap them round each other once to
form a ‘centromere’ linking the two ‘chromatids’. Remove the nuclear envelope. Move the
chromosomes so they line up at the centre of the cell, then pull the chromatids apart and
take them to each end of the cell. Place string around each one to represent a new nuclear
envelope. Students do not need to know any details of the stages of this process, so keep
this very simple, concentrating on the production of two new daughter cells with exactly
the same number and type of chromosomes as the original cell.
◆ Meiosis can be modelled in a similar way. Once again, do not go into too much detail.
Concentrate on the production of haploid cells from diploid. You could perhaps show
different alleles of the same genes on some of the homologous pairs by tying little pieces of
different coloured cotton to the chromosomes and showing how these can end up in different
combinations in the daughter cells. However, the concept of independent assortment is a
difficult one, and is not required by the syllabus, so do not go too far with this model.
◆ There are many definitions associated with this topic. Groups could race to match cards on
which a definition has been written with other cards on which a term has been written.

◆ Students can become confused about chromosomes, genes and alleles.
◆ They may also confuse the terms ‘chromosome’, ‘chromatid’ and ‘centromere’.
Homework ideas
◆ Use the internet to find the chromosome numbers of 10 species of organism.
◆ Worksheet 18.1 Mitosis and meiosis
Topic 2 Genes and alleles

Teaching ideas
◆ Through discussion, bring out the idea that a diploid cell has two copies of each gene.
Introduce the term ‘allele’ and then consider the different combinations of alleles there can
be in cells, if there are two alleles of a gene.
◆ Give students plenty of practice in using the terms ‘gene’, ‘allele’, ‘dominant’, ‘recessive’,
‘homozygous’, ‘heterozygous’, ‘genotype’ and ‘phenotype’ by posing questions along the lines
of Question 18.4 in the Coursebook. It is essential that students have a sound grasp of these
concepts before starting to think about how genes are passed on to the next generation. It is
suggested that you do not consider genes in gametes, or genetic crosses, until you move on
to the next topic.

◆ The large number of new terms can cause confusion.
Homework ideas
◆ Worksheet 18.2 Genotypes and phenotypes
Topic 3 Inheriting genes
Teaching ideas
◆ Begin by discussing the fact that gametes have only one copy of each gene. Consider the
different genotypes of gametes that can be produced by homozygous and heterozygous
organisms. Give students practice in this before moving to the next step.
◆ Now consider how the fusion of gametes with different genotypes can produce zygotes with
different genotypes. Introduce the format of genetic diagrams, following the style shown
on page 238 in the coursebook. Ensure that students understand what these diagrams are
showing. Note that the ‘gametes’ line should show the different gametes that are produced.
For a homozygote, only one type is produced and so only one should be shown, as on
page 238.
◆ It is suggested that Punnett squares are a better way of showing what happens when
different combinations of gametes fuse than joining them with lines. It is much less easy to
make an error. If the squares are made large enough, students can write the phenotype of
each resulting genotype inside them.
◆ If students have access to the Internet, there are various simulations that they could use to
carry out virtual genetic crosses.
◆ Students will benefit from plenty of repetitive practice with genetic crosses. Ensure that
they do not take shortcuts, but always write the cross out fully.
◆ Activity 18.1 ‘Breeding’ beads, can help students to understand that genetics is all about
probabilities.

◆ Many students always write down two gametes from each parent, even if only one type is
produced. This makes extra work when working out the possible offspring genotypes, and
also indicates that they do not understand what they are doing and why.
◆ They may think that each cross produces four offspring.
◆ Students often take shortcuts, missing out stages in the genetic diagram, which may
prevent them achieving full marks in an examination question.
◆ They may draw only a Punnett square, rather than a complete genetic diagram.
Homework ideas
◆ End-of-chapter questions 4, 5, 6 and 8
◆ Workbook exercise 18.1 Fruit fly inheritance
◆ Workbook exercise 18.2 Black and chestnut horses
◆ Workbook exercise 18.3 Pedigree
Topic 4 Sex inheritance; sex linkage

Teaching ideas
◆ Once again, it is important to establish an understanding of the genotypes and phenotypes
associated with sex-linked characteristics, before trying to look at how these are inherited.

◆ Sex linkage is a difficult topic, and students may manage to answer questions without a
deep understanding of what they are doing.
◆ Students often forget to write the symbol for the X chromosome as well as that of the allele
it carries.
Homework ideas
◆ Coursebook question 18.15
◆ Workbook exercise 18.4 Sex linkage in fruit flies
Topic 5 DNA and protein synthesis

Teaching ideas
◆ It is very important to keep this topic sufficiently simple for IGCSE students to understand.
They will deal with it in more detail if they continue to AS level.
◆ Look on the Internet for suitable animations showing how mRNA is made from DNA and
how proteins are assembled on ribosomes. Choose carefully and do not allow students to
become confused by too much information.

◆ Students often confuse bases with amino acids.
Homework ideas

Teaching ideas
Chapter 19 Variation and natural selection
Teaching resources
Topic
18.1 Variation 2 to 4 Activity 19.1 Worksheet 19.1
Measuring variation How different are
you?
Worksheet 19.2
EOCQs 1, 4
Genes for obesity
18.2 Adaptive features 2 to 3 Question 19.3 Exercise 19.1
Water hyacinth
experiment
18.1, 18.3 Selection 2 to 5 Questions 19.4 to 19.7 Exercise 19.2
Big-horn sheep
EOCQs 3, 5
18.3 Selective breeding 2 to 3 Questions 19.8 to 19.9 Exercise 19.3
Selective breeding
EOCQ 2
for high milk yield
Topic 1 Variation
Teaching ideas
◆ You could begin this topic with Worksheet 19.1 How different are you? Students can
then use their findings to think about discontinuous and continuous variation and about
its causes.
◆ Activity 19.1 Measuring variation, could be done as described, or you could use seeds,
leaves or any other biological samples that are available in large numbers and have
measurable variation.
◆ You may be able to find images on the Internet of organisms showing characteristics caused
by mutations (but take care not to use unsuitable images). Ensure that students appreciate
that mutations can occur spontaneously, but that the chance of this happening is increased
by various environmental factors.
◆ Worksheet 19.2 Genes for obesity, could form the basis of a class discussion about the
difficulty of finding out which of our characteristics are affected by genes.
◆ It is suggested that you leave sickle-cell anaemia until a little later, when you are dealing
with selection.

◆ Students very commonly have difficulties with the terms ‘continuous variation’ and
‘discontinuous variation’. They may think that continuous variation is something that
changes with time.
◆ Some students may not appreciate that changes to characteristics caused by the
environment do not affect genes and therefore cannot be inherited.
Homework ideas
Topic 2 Adaptive features

Teaching ideas
◆ This topic is best taught by showing students plants and animals that have very clear
adaptations for a particular environment. They can practice their observation and
recording skills by making labelled diagrams.

Homework ideas
◆ Coursebook question 19.3
◆ Workbook exercise 19.1 Water hyacinth experiment
Topic 3 Selection
Teaching ideas
◆ Use a particular example — for example, the cacti in Figure 19.12, or the peppered
moths described on pages 255–257, or a locally familiar example – to help students to
appreciate how individuals with a particular characteristic have a better chance of survival
than others. Make sure they are secure with this concept before thinking about the next
generation.
◆ Now discuss the idea that it is the organisms with this advantageous variation that will be
most likely to live long enough to reproduce. If the variation was caused by genes, then the
advantageous alleles they possess are more likely to be passed on to the next generation
than the other alleles possessed by other individuals.
◆ The evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria can be linked back to work on pathogens
done earlier.
◆ There are various interactive games simulating natural selection, available on the Internet.
Check them out carefully, however, before deciding to use them. A good one involving
peppered moths can be found at http://www.biologycorner.com/lesson-plans/evolution-
taxonomy/.

◆ Sickle cell anaemia provides a complete story beginning with mutation and how this causes
variation, then looking at differential selection pressures on individuals with different
genotypes, and finally relating this to current distributions of the mutant allele. This is a
very good example, but linking together so many ideas can be difficult for all but the most
able students.

◆ It is common for students to think that organisms purposefully change their characteristics
to become better adapted for their environment.
◆ They may try to explain selection in terms of the whole current population changing
characteristics, rather than considering the individuals within the population.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 19.2 Big-horn sheep
Topic 4 Selective breeding

Teaching ideas
◆ Artificial selection could be discussed with reference to a crop or animal that is familiar to
students.
◆ Provide students with a set of images of different breeds of an animal — say dogs, horses
or goats. Ask them to describe how they would use individuals of these breeds to produce
a different breed with a particular set of characteristics (for example, long ears and a
short tail). Ensure that they appreciate that the selection process has to go on for many
generations and will not be achieved in one go.

◆ Students frequently fail to appreciate that selection has to take place over many generations
in order to achieve a population with the desired characteristics.
◆ If they are discussing breeding cattle for high milk yield, they may not realise that bulls do
not produce milk.
◆ Students often confuse artificial selection with genetic engineering. They should appreciate
that genetic engineering is done only rarely, because it is very expensive, and requires
highly trained people and good laboratory facilities. Artificial selection, on the other hand,
has been done for centuries and is still by the far most widely used method of breeding new
varieties of crops or animals.
Homework ideas
◆ Coursebook question 19.8 to 19.9
◆ Workbook exercise 19.3 Selective breeding for high milk yield

Teaching ideas
Chapter 20 Organisms and their
environment
Teaching resources
Topic
19.1, 19.2 Ecology, Energy 2 to 6 Activity 20.1 Exercise 20.1 Worksheet 20.1
flow Studying an ecosystem Energy transfer in A boreal forest
a food chain food web
Activity 20.2
Investigating the food
preferences of slugs
EOCQs 2, 6
19.3 Nutrient cycles 3 to 5 EOCQs 1, 3, 4 Exercise 20.2
Fish tank
19.4 Population size 3 to 4 EOCQs 5, 7 Exercise 20.3 Worksheet 20.2
Goats on an island Population growth
Topic 1 Ecology; Energy flow

Teaching ideas
◆ If at all possible, take students outside to study a local ecosystem. Even the smallest area of
grass or woodland close to the school will provide enough organisms for them to be able to
suggest food chains and webs. Activity 20.1 Studying an ecosystem, provides suggestions
about how students could collect and interpret information.
◆ Activity 20.2 Investigating the food preferences of slugs, can provide an alternative way
of investigating live organisms, if you are not able to take students outside. However, it is
also valuable in its own right and could be done as well as Activity 20.1. It provides good
practice in interpreting results and evaluating their reliability. You could try this with
whichever animals are easily available locally (e.g. snails, locusts or other insects).
Take care that they are not stressed, and return them to their natural habitat once the
experiment is complete.

◆ At this level, students should be expected to state that the arrows in a food chain represent
transfer of energy, not just ‘is eaten by’.
◆ Students very frequently fail to realise that the boxes in a pyramid are a quantitative
representation of the numbers or biomass of organisms, where the area of the box
represents a particular number or mass. A ‘triangle’ is not a suitable way of showing such
a pyramid.
◆ They may think that a smaller box means that an organism at that trophic level has a
smaller energy content than one at a lower trophic level. They fail to understand that the
boxes represent the total numbers or biomass of all the organisms at that trophic level.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 20.1, Energy transfer in a food chain
◆ Worksheet 20.1 A boreal forest food web
Topic 2 Nutrient cycles

Teaching ideas
◆ It is likely that students will already have met the carbon and water cycles, so you may
be able to build each of these up (on the board, for example) using suggestions and
contributions from the class. This is much more effective than simply presenting them with
ready-made flow diagrams.
◆ Different students could be placed in the room to represent different parts of the carbon
cycle. For example, a small circle of students could represent the air; another group could
represent the leaves, stem and roots of a plant; another could represent decomposers in
the soil, another a grazing animal and so on. Ask one person to be, for example, a carbon
atom in a carbon dioxide molecule in the air, and to move between the different groups
until the atom is part of a cell in the ‘animal’. Referees can be appointed to make sure that
the chosen routes are valid, or to ask the ‘carbon atom’ what it thinks it is doing or what is
happening to it.
◆ The nitrogen cycle is much more difficult for students to understand than the carbon cycle.
The fundamental difficulty lies in the widespread use of the term ‘nitrogen’ to mean any
form of nitrogen, including nitrogen compounds. It will become easier if you use the term
‘nitrogen’ to mean only a nitrogen atom or nitrogen gas, and always refer to compounds of
nitrogen by their names – for example, nitrates, proteins, urea.
◆ As for the carbon and water cycles, students will find it easier to understand the nitrogen
cycle if it is built up gradually through discussion, preferably using contributions from
the class.

◆ Students often do not appreciate that gaseous water is invisible and that it is only when it
condenses to form tiny water droplets that clouds are formed.
◆ They may think that solutes, such as salt, evaporate from the sea along with the water.
◆ They may use the term ‘fossilisation’ to describe the formation of fossil fuels, which is
not correct. Fossilisation means the formation of fossils, which are the remains of living
organisms that have turned to rock. Most fossil fuels are not fossils (e.g. natural gas, oil).

◆ Students who have a poor understanding of elements, compounds, ions and molecules may
struggle to understand the nitrogen cycle.
◆ They may say that nitrogen gas cannot be ‘absorbed’ by living organisms. This is
incorrect – nitrogen gas is easily absorbed across gas exchange surfaces. However, it cannot
be used by most organisms, because it is too unreactive.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 20.2 Fish tank
Topic 3 Population size

Teaching ideas
◆ The ‘yeast in a flask’ scenario (Figure 20.12) is a good way of introducing students to the
concepts involved in population growth, as they generally find it easy to visualise and can
understand why the population cannot grow for ever. Alternatively, you could discuss what
might happen if a few rabbits or other animals were introduced to an island.
◆ Age pyramids (Figure 20.14) could be introduced by looking at a current one for the
country in which your school or college is situated – there are numerous sites on the
Internet where this information can be found. Then choose another country with a
contrasting shape of age pyramid and, through discussion, help students to appreciate
what different shapes of pyramid convey about how the population is changing in size and
composition.

◆ Students may say that the population of yeast cells in a flask, or a population of rabbits on
an island, stops growing because they ‘run out of space’. Space in itself is rarely likely to be
a significant problem for any population – it is far more likely that a factor such as food
supply or suitable breeding sites is limiting.
Homework ideas
◆ Workbook exercise 20.3 Goats on an island
◆ Worksheet 20.2 Population growth


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What is the purpose of the Teacher's Resource?

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What are some common misconceptions about population growth?

What are some common misconceptions about population growth?

9781107614963 Cambridge IGCSE Biology Teacher’s Resource Mary Jones and Geoff Jones.

Cambridge IGCSE Biology, Third edition

Cambridge IGCSE Biology Teacher’s Resource

Jones and Jones

9781107614963cvr.indd 20 12/09/2013 16:06

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 1 Characteristics of living things

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Topic 3 The kingdoms of living organisms: viruses

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Topic 4 Classifying animals and plants: magniﬁcation

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 1 Using a microscope

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Topic 3 Cells and organisms

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 3 Active transport

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 1 Water; Carbohydrates

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 1 Biological catalysts

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Topic 2 Properties of enzymes

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

6.1, 6.3 Products of 2 to 4 Questions 6.16 to 6.19

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 1 Types of nutrition; photosynthesis

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions

Topic 3 Products of photosynthesis

Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014

Topic 4 Factors affecting photosynthesis

Common misunderstandings and misconceptions