At a glance
The course in numbers
How to read it. One row is one 45-minute lesson; its pack holds the plan, worksheet and quiz. The week column counts 3 lessons a week until you change the control above; the sheet you download uses the same numbers. Each topic ends at an assessment point, its question bank, which you can assign in the app for a marked score. The learning intention is the first idea of each lesson in the students' own pages; the traps are the examiner traps those pages pre-empt.
AS Level
Year 1: the AS topics
Weeks 1 to 12Topic 1Cell structure
Week 1| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.1 | Microscopes, magnification and resolution | Click down the size ladder from a person to a carbon atom. |
| 1 | 1.2 | Animal and plant cells | Rotate the animal cell and click each organelle to read its function. |
| 1 | 1.2 | Prokaryotic cells and viruses | Rotate the bacterium and click each part. |
| 1 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Increasing the magnification does not improve the resolution.
- Convert before you divide.
- Do not confuse cilia and microvilli.
Topic 2Biological molecules
Weeks 2 to 3| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2.1 | Testing for biological molecules | Pick a sample and a test on the virtual bench, then run it. |
| 2 | 2.2 | Carbohydrates | Rotate α-glucose, β-glucose and ribose in the simulator, with the carbon numbers switched on. |
| 2 | 2.2 | Lipids | Step through the saturated fatty acid, the unsaturated fatty acid, the triglyceride, the phospholipid and the bilayer. |
| 3 | 2.3 | Proteins | Start on the amino acid in the simulator, then step through primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure, and finally collagen. |
| 3 | 2.4 | Water | Rotate the cluster of water molecules and follow the dashed hydrogen bonds. |
| 3 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Benedict's must be in excess for the semi-quantitative test.
- If the first Benedict's test is already positive, a colour after hydrolysis proves nothing on its own: you would need a deeper colour (more precipitate) after hydrolysis than before to show a non-reducing sugar was there as well.
- Each hydrogen bond in cellulose is weak; the strength comes from the very large number of them between many parallel chains.
Topic 3Enzymes
Weeks 3 to 4| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3.1 | How enzymes work | Rotate the enzyme in the simulator, then bring in the substrate. |
| 4 | 3.2 | Factors that affect enzyme action | Drag the temperature slider for the human enzyme (optimum 37 °C), then switch to the Antarctic fish enzyme and the thermophile enzyme (optimum 75 °C). |
| 4 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 16 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Say complementary, not the same shape.
- The curve levels off because the substrate has run out, not because the enzyme has been used up or denatured.
- Do not write that enzymes are killed: they are not alive.
Topic 4Cell membranes and transport
Weeks 4 to 5| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4.1 | The fluid mosaic model | Rotate the 3D membrane and pick each component in turn. |
| 4 | 4.2 | Diffusion, active transport and bulk transport | Try each molecule in turn. |
| 5 | 4.2 | Osmosis and water potential | Set pure water on the left and 0.50 mol dm −3 sucrose on the right, press Start and read both water potentials. |
| 5 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- The hydrophobic core is what makes the membrane a barrier: ions and polar molecules such as glucose cannot pass through it easily.
- Carbohydrate chains are found only on the outer surface of the cell surface membrane, facing the tissue fluid.
- Facilitated diffusion is still passive.
Topic 5The mitotic cell cycle
Week 5| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5.1 | Chromosomes and the cell cycle | Step up through the four levels of packing in the 3D model: the bare double helix (2 nm), nucleosomes (11 nm), the coiled fibre (30 nm) and the condensed chromosome (about 1400 nm). |
| 5 | 5.2 | Chromosome behaviour in mitosis | Press Play, or click the stage chips, and rotate the cell as it divides. |
| 5 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 16 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- A chromosome is not always X-shaped.
- Interphase is not a resting stage.
- A tumour forms by mitosis, which is why the tumour cells are genetically identical to the first mutated cell.
Topic 6Nucleic acids and protein synthesis
Weeks 6 to 7| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 6.1 | The structure of nucleic acids | Click through the four chips in the simulator: DNA nucleotide, RNA nucleotide, purines and pyrimidines, and ATP. |
| 6 | 6.1 | Semi-conservative replication of DNA | Press Replicate and follow the fork from left to right. |
| 6 | 6.2 | Transcription and translation | Press Transcribe and watch RNA polymerase (green) move along the gene, opening the DNA just around itself. |
| 7 | 6.2 | Gene mutations | Start on normal, then click substitution, silent substitution, deletion and insertion in turn. |
| 7 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not say thymine is a purine because it pairs with adenine.
- Antiparallel does not just mean the strands are side by side.
- Do not say DNA polymerase builds the lagging strand 3′ to 5′.
Topic 7Transport in plants
Weeks 7 to 8| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 7.1 | Xylem and phloem: structure and distribution | The lab opens on a stem section. |
| 7 | 7.2 | From soil to xylem, and up the stem | Choose apoplast, then symplast, then both. |
| 8 | 7.2 | Transpiration and xerophytic leaves | Watch where the water vapour particles start and how they leave the leaf. |
| 8 | 7.2 | Translocation: loading the phloem and mass flow | Choose zoom to source and watch the yellow protons, the pink sucrose and the blue water. |
| 8 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- A plan diagram shows the outlines of tissues only: no individual cells, no shading, clear continuous lines, proportions that match the specimen and label lines drawn with a ruler.
- Xylem vessel elements are dead, so they cannot actively transport anything; water moves up them passively.
- The Casparian strip blocks the apoplast only.
Topic 8Transport in mammals
Weeks 8 to 9| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 8.1 | A closed double circulation and its blood vessels | Click each vessel in the model: pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, aorta and vena cava, then the arterioles, capillaries and venules. |
| 9 | 8.1 | Blood cells, water and tissue fluid | Click each cell in turn: the red blood cell, the neutrophil, the monocyte and the lymphocyte. |
| 9 | 8.2 | Transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide | Drag the dot along the curve or move the pO 2 slider from the lungs band (green) down to the respiring tissue band (orange). |
| 9 | 8.3 | The heart and the cardiac cycle | Click each part of the heart: the atria, ventricles and septum, the two kinds of valve, the four vessels, then the SAN, AVN and Purkyne tissue. |
| 9 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Arteries carry blood away from the heart and veins carry blood towards it.
- An artery has a small lumen relative to its thick wall; a vein has a wide lumen and often looks squashed or irregular on a slide because its thin wall does not hold its shape.
- A lymphocyte's nucleus nearly fills the cell, leaving a thin rim of cytoplasm; a monocyte is much bigger with a bean-shaped nucleus.
Topic 9Gas exchange
Week 10| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 9.1 | The gas exchange system and its airways | The lab opens on the whole system. |
| 10 | 9.1 | Alveoli, gas exchange and the airway tissues | Red dots are oxygen and grey dots are carbon dioxide. |
| 10 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 16 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Bronchioles have no cartilage; that is the quickest way to tell a bronchiole from a bronchus on a slide.
- Cilia do not trap particles and they do not make mucus.
- Gases cross by diffusion, not active transport, and each gas moves down its own gradient.
Topic 10Infectious diseases
Weeks 10 to 11| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10.1 | Pathogens and how they are transmitted | The lab opens on cholera. |
| 11 | 10.1 | Preventing and controlling infectious diseases | Choose a disease, leave every box unticked and press Run the outbreak: one infected person enters a community of 200. |
| 11 | 10.2 | Antibiotics: penicillin and resistance | Leave the target on growing bacterium and press Add penicillin. |
| 11 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Malaria is not caused by a bacterium or by the mosquito.
- HIV does not survive long outside the body and is not spread by touching, coughing, sharing cups or by mosquitoes.
- A treatment that saves lives does not always reduce transmission.
Topic 11Immunity
Weeks 11 to 12| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 11.1 | Phagocytes and antigens | Press Start and watch the neutrophil hunt down the bacteria one by one. |
| 12 | 11.1 | Lymphocytes and the immune response | Press Next step to work through all eight steps. |
| 12 | 11.2 | Antibodies and monoclonal antibodies | With the structure chip on, click each part of the antibody: the heavy chains (blue), light chains (green), variable regions (orange), constant region, hinge and disulfide bonds. |
| 12 | 11.2 | Vaccination and types of immunity | Click each of the four immunity chips and read what gives the protection. |
| 12 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Phagocytosis is non-specific: the same neutrophil will engulf any pathogen it recognises as non-self.
- An antigen is not a pathogen.
- Clonal selection is not the lymphocyte "making" a receptor to fit the antigen.
A Level (A2)
Year 2: the A2 topics
Weeks 13 to 25Topic 12Energy and respiration
Weeks 13 to 14| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 12.1 | Energy, ATP and respiratory quotients | Spend ATP on active transport, then on movement, then on an anabolic reaction, and watch the ATP and ADP + Pi counters. |
| 13 | 12.2 | Mitochondria, glycolysis and the Krebs cycle | Click each structure of the mitochondrion in turn: outer membrane, inner membrane, cristae, matrix, ATP synthase, ribosomes and circular DNA. |
| 13 | 12.2 | Oxidative phosphorylation and chemiosmosis | Watch reduced NAD deliver its hydrogen with oxygen available: protons are yellow and electrons blue. |
| 14 | 12.2 | Anaerobic respiration, rice and measuring respiration rate | Pick lactate (mammals), then ethanol (yeast), and follow the carbon atoms and the NAD. |
| 14 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Energy is not "stored in the bond" and released by breaking it.
- RQ is CO 2 divided by O 2, never the other way up.
- A gauze platform keeps the organisms off the KOH, which is corrosive.
Topic 13Photosynthesis
Weeks 14 to 15| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 13.1 | Chloroplasts and pigments | Rotate the chloroplast and click each structure: the envelope, the grana, the lamellae, the stroma, the starch grains, the lipid droplets, the ribosomes and the loop of DNA. |
| 14 | 13.1 | The light-dependent stage | Start on non-cyclic. |
| 15 | 13.1 | The Calvin cycle | Click each stage chip in turn: carbon fixation, reduction, regeneration and products. |
| 15 | 13.2 | Limiting factors and investigations | Drag the yellow dot along the graph to change the light intensity, then change CO 2 and temperature (5-45 °C). |
| 15 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Learn the sites exactly: the thylakoids (membranes and spaces, in grana) are the site of the light-dependent stage; the stroma is the site of the light-independent stage.
- An R f value only identifies a pigment if it is compared with known values for the same solvent and the same paper or plate.
- Oxygen comes from water, split by photolysis, not from carbon dioxide.
Topic 14Homeostasis
Weeks 15 to 17| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 14.1 | Principles of homeostasis | Press Too hot (core temperature jumps to 38.5 °C) and watch the light travel round the loop from stimulus to receptor, coordinator, effector and response. |
| 16 | 14.1 | The kidney: filtering and reclaiming | Rotate the cut kidney and click each part: fibrous capsule, cortex, medulla, renal pelvis, ureter, and the branches of the renal artery and renal vein. |
| 16 | 14.1 | Osmoregulation and ADH | Choose dehydrated, normal and drunk a lot of water in turn. |
| 16 | 14.1 | Cell signalling and blood glucose | Press Next step to move through all seven stages. |
| 17 | 14.2 | Stomata: homeostasis in plants | Choose daytime (light) and watch the orange K + ions flow into the guard cells and the stoma open. |
| 17 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Negative feedback does not mean that something bad happens.
- Arterioles do not move up and down in the skin.
- Urea is made in the liver, not in the kidney.
Topic 15Control and coordination
Weeks 17 to 18| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 15.1 | Nervous and endocrine systems | Click each part of the motor neurone (top, yellow) and the sensory neurone (bottom, green). |
| 17 | 15.1 | Resting and action potentials | Press Stimulate with the Size slider at 0.8 and watch the graph and the phase readout: stimulus, depolarisation, repolarisation, hyperpolarisation, refractory period, resting. |
| 18 | 15.1 | The cholinergic synapse | Press Send an action potential and read the stage readout as it changes: action potential arrives, Ca 2+ channels open, vesicles fuse, ACh binds, postsynaptic depolarisation, ACh broken down. |
| 18 | 15.1 | Striated muscle and contraction | In the sarcomere view, drag the Contraction slider and watch the Z lines move together while the blue actin and pink myosin stay the same length. |
| 18 | 15.2 | Control and coordination in plants | Choose Venus fly trap and press Go once: one hair touched, the trap stays open. |
| 18 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not say hormones travel only to their target organ.
- A receptor potential is graded: its size depends on the stimulus strength.
- During repolarisation K + moves out by diffusion through channels, not by the pump.
Topic 16Inheritance
Weeks 19 to 20| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 16.1 | Meiosis and genetic variation | Press Next stage and watch the two homologous pairs (red from one parent, blue from the other). |
| 19 | 16.2 | Monohybrid and dihybrid crosses | Every genetics answer starts with the same words. |
| 19 | 16.2 | The chi-squared test | Press Grow 160 offspring several times. |
| 20 | 16.2 | Genes, proteins and phenotype | Choose TYR, HBB, F8 and HTT in turn. |
| 20 | 16.3 | Gene control | Start with no lactose and read the REPRESSOR and β-GALACTOSIDASE readouts. |
| 20 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not mix up the two anaphases.
- Crossing over happens between non-sister chromatids of a homologous pair, in prophase I.
- Write a full genetic diagram: parental phenotypes, parental genotypes, gametes (one allele of each gene), Punnett square, offspring genotypes and phenotypes, ratio.
Topic 17Selection and evolution
Weeks 20 to 22| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 17.1 | Variation and the t-test | Start with Genes involved = 1 and Environment = 0. |
| 21 | 17.2 | Natural selection, drift and resistance | Choose stabilising, then press Run 10 generations and compare the yellow histogram with the grey starting population. |
| 21 | 17.2 | The Hardy-Weinberg principle | Start with Recessive phenotype (q²) at 0.16. |
| 21 | 17.2 | Selective breeding | Choose disease-resistant wheat and press Next generation four times: the orange rust spots become rarer each generation, and the ears shrink in the F1 and then return to full size. |
| 22 | 17.3 | Evolution and speciation | Compare the five 20-base sequences. |
| 22 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Variation caused only by the environment is not passed on to offspring, because it does not change the alleles in the gametes.
- Continuous variation is not caused by alleles blending.
- A large difference between means is not enough on its own.
Topic 18Classification, biodiversity and conservation
Weeks 22 to 23| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 18.1 | Species, domains and kingdoms | Switch between the biological, morphological and ecological concepts. |
| 22 | 18.2 | Sampling and measuring biodiversity | Biodiversity is more than a list of species. |
| 23 | 18.2 | Transects and correlation | Press Sample along the transect. |
| 23 | 18.3 | Extinction and conservation | Start with no threat, then pick climate change, competition, hunting and habitat loss in turn. |
| 23 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 32 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Producing offspring is not enough for the biological species concept: the offspring must be fertile.
- Archaea are not a kind of bacteria, even though both are prokaryotes.
- Square each n/N before adding, then subtract the total from 1.
Topic 19Genetic technology
Weeks 23 to 25| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 19.1 | Recombinant DNA | Pick each source in turn and press Run. |
| 24 | 19.1 | PCR and gel electrophoresis | Press Run 10 cycles. |
| 24 | 19.1 | Microarrays and bioinformatics | The slide holds 64 spots in an 8 by 8 grid, all dark to start. |
| 24 | 19.2 | Genetic technology in medicine | Pick deletion, insertion or replacement, then press Edit. |
| 25 | 19.3 | GM crops and animals | Choose GM salmon, herbicide-resistant soybean and Bt cotton in turn and press Apply the test. |
| 25 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 40 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Reverse transcriptase makes DNA from an RNA template (the reverse of transcription).
- Seeing the gene in the cell is not enough: the marker shows that the inserted DNA is being expressed (transcribed and translated), because the green colour only appears if a fluorescent protein has been made.
- Primers are DNA, not RNA, in PCR, and there are two of them: one binds to each strand at opposite ends of the target, so the section between them is what gets copied.
Also for this course
Beyond the scheme
Lesson packs73 packs: plan, worksheet, quiz
Question bankBuild a test from every course
PlannerBlock out the term
Classes and gradebookAssign the banks, track everyone
Student syllabus pageA-Level Biology 9700
Original work by the TheLucidSTEM team. Week numbers assume 3 lessons a week unless you change the control; the download carries the numbers shown.