Key term
AQA GCSE Combined Science Biology 8464
Bioenergetics
Cell Biology
Topic overviewEukaryotes and prokaryotesAnimal and plant cellsCell specialisation and differentiationMicroscopyChromosomes, mitosis and the cell cycleStem cells in embryos, adults and meristemsTherapeutic cloning, its risks, and cloning plantsDiffusion and the factors affecting its rateSurface area to volume ratio and exchange surfacesOsmosisActive transport
Ecology
Topic overviewLevels of organisation in an ecosystem, and what organisms needCompetition, interdependence and stable communitiesAbiotic factorsBiotic factorsAdaptationsProducers, food chains and sampling with quadrats and transectsPredators, prey and measuring population sizeHow materials are cycledWaste management and biodiversityLand use, deforestation and global warmingMaintaining biodiversity
Homeostasis and Response
Infection and Response
Inheritance, Variation and Evolution
Topic overviewSexual and asexual reproductionMeiosisDNA and the genomeGenetic terms, dominant and recessive allelesPunnett squares, probability and genetic crossesInherited disorders and sex determinationVariationEvolutionSelective breedingWhat genetic engineering is, and what it is used forGM crops, their risks, and the steps of the processEvidence for evolution, and extinctionFossilsResistant bacteriaClassification of living organisms
Organisation
Topic overviewLevels of organisation, and how enzymes workAmylase, proteases and lipasesBile, food tests and the effect of pH on amylaseThe heart, the lungs and double circulationThe pacemaker, the blood vessels and the bloodCoronary heart disease: a non-communicable diseaseHealth issuesRisk factors and causal mechanisms in diseaseSampling, correlation and interpreting risk dataCancerPlant tissues, and transpiration and its rateRoot hair cells, xylem, phloem and stomata
Organisation
- 12 subtopics
- 36 things to know
- Biology Paper 1
What Organisation covers
Organisation is examined in Biology Paper 1. It covers levels of organisation and how enzymes work; digestive enzymes, bile, food tests and the effect of pH on amylase; the heart, lungs and double circulation; the pacemaker, blood vessels and blood; coronary heart disease and its treatments; health issues, risk factors, interpreting risk data and cancer; and plant tissues, transpiration, root hair cells, xylem, phloem and stomata.
Where it is assessed
Biology Paper 1
Combined Science: Trilogy, Biology Paper 1: 1 hour 15 minutes, 70 marks, 16.7% of the qualification.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 12 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Levels of organisation, and how enzymes workCells, tissues, organs and organ systems, digestion and absorption in the digestive system, enzymes as biological catalysts, the effects of temperature and pH on the active site, calculating reaction rates, including from a tangent, and the lock and key model.Open →
- Amylase, proteases and lipasesWhere amylase, proteases and lipase are made and where they act, word equations for starch and lipid digestion, why food must be digested and absorbed into the blood, and carbohydrases, proteases and lipases with their products.Open →
- Bile, food tests and the effect of pH on amylaseUses of the products of digestion, bile from the liver neutralising acid and emulsifying fat, food tests for lipid, sugars, starch and protein, and the effect of pH on amylase by continuous sampling with iodine, random error, testing hypotheses against data, and hazards in the ethanol, Benedict's and Biuret tests.Open →
- The heart, the lungs and double circulationGas exchange in the alveoli and how the lungs are adapted for it, the path of blood through the four chambers, the double circulatory system, the ventricles, aorta, vena cava and pulmonary vessels, the coronary arteries, and the route air takes into the lungs.Open →
- The pacemaker, the blood vessels and the bloodThe natural and artificial pacemaker, the structure of arteries, veins and capillaries, calculating the rate of blood flow, and blood as a tissue of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, red blood cell adaptations and haemoglobin, telling white from red blood cells, phagocytes, and platelets in clotting.Open →
- Coronary heart disease: a non-communicable diseaseAdvantages and disadvantages of statins, mechanical devices and transplants, fatty build-up in the coronary arteries and its damage to heart muscle, stents and statins, faulty and replacement heart valves, heart and lung transplants, and artificial hearts.Open →
- Health issuesHealth as physical and mental well-being, communicable and non-communicable disease, the effects of diet, stress and life situation, how immune defects, viruses and pathogens link to infections, cancer and allergies, links between physical and mental health, and sampling and presenting disease data in bar charts, scatter diagrams, frequency tables and histograms.Open →
- Risk factors and causal mechanisms in diseaseThe human and financial costs of non-communicable disease, national differences in disease, what risk factors are and why correlation is not causation, the effects of exercise, smoking, obesity and alcohol, carcinogens, and measured against perceived risk for imposed, unfamiliar and invisible hazards.Open →
- Sampling, correlation and interpreting risk dataWhy several factors interact to cause disease, large and representative samples with a comparison group, incidence and trend calculations, and correlation on a scatter diagram against a causal mechanism.Open →
- CancerCancer as uncontrolled cell division, tumours and the damage they cause, benign and malignant tumours and how malignant cells spread in the blood to form secondary tumours, and lifestyle, genetic and ultraviolet risk factors.Open →
- Plant tissues, and transpiration and its ratePalisade and spongy mesophyll, epidermis and meristem tissue, the leaf as an organ, xylem and phloem, how temperature, humidity, air movement and light affect transpiration, measuring and graphing water uptake, and the transport system of roots, stem and leaves.Open →
- Root hair cells, xylem, phloem and stomataRoot hair cells taking up water by osmosis and mineral ions by active transport, the structure of xylem with lignin, the transpiration stream, stomata and guard cells, and phloem, translocation of sugars and how xylem and phloem differ.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Explain why a benign tumour in the brain is still dangerous, what malignant and secondary tumours are, and how benign and malignant tumours differ.
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What is a tissue?
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State where the digestive enzymes made by the pancreas do their work.
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Name the two gases exchanged in the lungs and state the direction each one moves.
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Name the three types of blood vessel found in the body.
Evaluation
Give one advantage and one disadvantage of treating heart failure with a transplant.
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Describe the relationship between health and disease.
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Describe one human cost of non-communicable disease to a family.
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Explain why two people exposed to the same risk factor may not both develop the disease.
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Name the tissue that covers the outside of a plant and state what it does.
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What does xylem transport, and in which direction?
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What is an organ?
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Write a word equation for the digestion of starch by amylase.
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Describe how you would test a food sample for lipid.
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Describe the path blood takes through the four chambers of the heart, starting from the body.
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Explain why veins contain valves but arteries do not.
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Describe what happens inside the coronary arteries in coronary heart disease.
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Explain how someone with no disease at all might still not be in good health.
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Suggest why rates of non-communicable disease differ between one country and another.
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Give an example of several factors interacting to cause one disease.
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What is a tumour?
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Where is meristem tissue found in a plant, and what can its cells do?
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What is lignin and what does it do in xylem?
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What is an organ system?
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Write a word equation for the action of lipase on a lipid.
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Which reagent is used to test for sugars, and how is the test carried out?
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What is a double circulatory system?
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How is the rate of blood flow through a vessel calculated?
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Explain why narrowed coronary arteries damage the heart.
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Define health.
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What is a risk factor?
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Explain why it is difficult to prove that one particular factor causes a disease.
Process
Which process has gone wrong in a cell that has become cancerous?
Key term
Name the tissues and cells that make up a leaf.
Key term
What is meant by the transpiration stream?
Take Organisation further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Artery vs Vein
Artery: a thick-walled vessel carrying blood away from the heart under high pressure. Vein: a thin-walled vessel with valves returning blood to the heart at low pressure.
Xylem vs Phloem
Xylem: dead hollow tubes that carry water and mineral ions upwards from the roots. Phloem: living tubes that carry dissolved sugars in either direction around the plant.
Benign tumour vs Malignant tumour
Benign tumour: a growth of abnormal cells that stays in one area and does not invade other tissues. Malignant tumour: a cancer whose cells invade neighbouring tissues and spread around the body.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is the basic building block from which all living organisms are made?
Model answer
The cell.
- 2
What is a tissue?
Model answer
A group of cells with a similar structure and function.
- 3
A block of muscle is made of many cells of the same type all carrying out the same job. Which level of organisation does this describe?
Model answer
A tissue.
- 4
What is an organ?
Model answer
A group of different tissues working together to carry out a specific function.
- 5
Explain why the stomach is classed as an organ rather than a tissue.
Model answer
It is built from several different tissues, such as muscle and glandular tissue, which work together to do one job.
- 6
What is an organ system?
Model answer
A group of organs that work together to carry out a particular function.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Organisation revision questions
- What does Organisation cover in AQA GCSE Combined Science Biology?
- 12 subtopics: levels of organisation, and how enzymes work, amylase, proteases and lipases, bile, food tests and the effect of ph on amylase, the heart, the lungs and double circulation, the pacemaker, the blood vessels and the blood, coronary heart disease: a non-communicable disease, health issues, risk factors and causal mechanisms in disease, sampling, correlation and interpreting risk data, cancer, plant tissues, and transpiration and its rate and root hair cells, xylem, phloem and stomata. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Organisation organised?
- By the AQA 8464 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Organisation, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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