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Scheme of work · Cambridge IGCSE Biology 0610

Biology scheme of work

73 lessons in 21 topics, in syllabus order: 54 hours 45 minutes of teaching at 45 minutes a lesson. Set your lessons per week and the week numbers follow. Every lesson links to its pack, every topic to its lab, question bank and notes.

Lesson packs

Lessons per week25 weeks for the course at 3 a weekRemembered in this browser.

At a glance

The course in numbers

Lessons

73, one 45-minute lesson pack each

Teaching time

54 hours 45 minutes

Weeks

25 at 3 lessons a week

Topics

21, in syllabus order

Assessment points

21 topic question banks, assignable in the app

Labs

21 full-screen topic labs to project

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.

The topics in syllabus order

Weeks 1 to 25

Topic 1Characteristics and classification

Week 1

3 lessons, 2 hours 15 minutesTopic plan Lab: Classification lab Assessment: topic question bank (24 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
1	1.1	Characteristics of living organisms	Pick the dog in the simulator and test each characteristic in turn, then do the same for the plant.
1	1.2	Classification and dichotomous keys	Cross each pair of animals in the simulator, then try to breed their offspring.
1	1.3	Features of organisms	Core: the features of the animal and plant kingdoms.
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:

Respiration is not breathing.
Growth means a permanent increase in size and dry mass.
A species is not defined by appearance.

Topic 2Organisation of the organism

Week 2

3 lessons, 2 hours 15 minutesTopic plan Lab: Cells lab Assessment: topic question bank (24 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
2	2.1	Animal, plant and bacterial cells	Pick the animal cell in the simulator, turn it, and click each part to read what it does.
2	2.1	Specialised cells and levels of organisation	Press Divide every cell and watch the order of events.
2	2.2	Magnification and size of specimens	Choose find magnification.
2		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:

Plant cells have mitochondria as well as chloroplasts.
A label line must touch the structure you name.
Learn the function in the syllabus words.

Topic 3Movement into and out of cells

Week 3

3 lessons, 2 hours 15 minutesTopic plan Lab: Transport lab Assessment: topic question bank (24 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
3	3.1	Diffusion	Drop dye into still water.
3	3.2	Osmosis	Water is the solvent in which the chemistry of life happens.
3	3.3	Active transport	In the sim there are already more nitrate ions inside the root hair cell than in the soil water, yet the cell keeps taking more in.
3		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:

Do not say particles stop moving when diffusion is complete.
"Higher concentration" on its own is not a factor.
In osmosis it is the water that moves, not the solute.

Topic 4Biological molecules

Week 4

2 lessons, 1 hour 30 minutesTopic plan Lab: Biological molecules lab Assessment: topic question bank (16 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
4	4.1	Large molecules from small ones	Turn the glucose molecule in the sim and press each element chip.
4	4.1	Food tests and the structure of DNA	Pick a food and a test, then press Do the test.
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:

Nitrogen is the element that separates proteins from the other two groups. "Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen" is a correct answer for carbohydrates and for fats, but it loses the mark for proteins unless you add nitrogen.
"Fats are made from fatty acids" is only half an answer.
State both colours: the colour of the reagent at the start and the colour it turns. "Iodine turns blue" instead of blue-black, or a Benedict's result given without heating, are classic lost marks.

Topic 5Enzymes

Weeks 4 to 5

2 lessons, 1 hour 30 minutesTopic plan Lab: Enzymes lab Assessment: topic question bank (16 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
4	5.1	Enzymes as biological catalysts	Pour hydrogen peroxide with a little washing-up liquid into a measuring cylinder.
5	5.1	Temperature, pH and enzyme activity	Mix amylase with starch in a tube in a water bath.
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:

An enzyme is not used up and is not a reactant.
The active site is complementary to the substrate, not "the same shape" as it.
Low temperature does not denature an enzyme.

Topic 6Plant nutrition

Weeks 5 to 6

3 lessons, 2 hours 15 minutesTopic plan Lab: Photosynthesis lab Assessment: topic question bank (24 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
5	6.1	Photosynthesis	In the sim, carbon dioxide molecules drift in from the air and water molecules arrive from the xylem.
5	6.1	Investigating photosynthesis	Choose an experiment in the sim and press Next step to work through the method.
6	6.2	Leaf structure	Two features of the whole leaf matter before you look inside.
6		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:

Light and chlorophyll are written over the arrow, not as reactants.
Glucose is not transported in the phloem: it is converted to sucrose first.
Nitrate is for amino acids (proteins), not for chlorophyll directly; magnesium is for chlorophyll.

Topic 7Human nutrition

Weeks 6 to 7

5 lessons, 3 hours 45 minutesTopic plan Lab: Human nutrition lab Assessment: topic question bank (40 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
6	7.1	Diet	Fill the plate in the sim with a day's food.
6	7.2	The digestive system	Click each organ in the 3D model, or press Follow a mouthful and watch the food travel from mouth to anus.
7	7.3	Physical digestion	The sim opens on the lower jaw of an adult.
7	7.4	Chemical digestion	Choose a region of the gut in the sim and press Run digestion.
7	7.5	Absorption	Start the sim on one villus.
7		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:

A balanced diet is not just "eating healthy food" or "eating a bit of everything".
Rickets can be caused by a lack of vitamin D even when there is enough calcium in the diet, because vitamin D is needed to absorb the calcium.
The liver, pancreas, gall bladder and salivary glands are not part of the alimentary canal: food never passes through them.

Topic 8Transport in plants

Weeks 8 to 9

4 lessons, 3 hoursTopic plan Lab: Plant transport lab Assessment: topic question bank (32 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
8	8.1	Xylem and phloem	Pick a section in the sim and rotate it.
8	8.2	Water uptake	Each root hair is a long, thin outgrowth of a single cell in the outer layer of the root.
8	8.3	Transpiration	The sim shows a block of leaf: palisade and spongy mesophyll cells with air spaces between them and stomata in the lower surface.
9	8.4	Translocation	Extended.
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:

Do not mix up the cargoes.
Lignin makes xylem strong; it does not make it "living" or help it carry sugar.
A root hair is part of one cell, not a separate cell and not a whole root.

Topic 9Transport in animals

Weeks 9 to 10

4 lessons, 3 hoursTopic plan Lab: Circulation lab Assessment: topic question bank (32 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
9	9.1	Circulatory systems	Switch the sim between the fish and the mammal and watch the blood cells change colour as they travel.
9	9.2	The heart	Click each part of the cut-away heart, then press Play heartbeats.
10	9.3	Blood vessels	Switch between artery, vein and capillary.
10	9.4	Blood	Start on the blood sample view and rotate it.
10		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 circulatory system is not just "the heart and blood".
"Twice through the heart" is a description, not an advantage.
Diagrams show the heart as if you are facing the person, so the left ventricle is on the right of the page.

Topic 10Diseases and immunity

Weeks 10 to 11

2 lessons, 1 hour 30 minutesTopic plan Lab: Disease and immunity lab Assessment: topic question bank (16 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
10	10.1	Pathogens and body defences	Press Start an outbreak.
11	10.1	Antibodies and vaccination	Extended.
11		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 pathogen is the organism that causes the disease, not the disease itself.
Stomach acid kills pathogens; it does not "digest" them like food.
The toxin does not pump water directly.

Topic 11Gas exchange in humans

Week 11

2 lessons, 1 hour 30 minutesTopic plan Lab: Gas exchange and respiration lab Assessment: topic question bank (16 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
11	11.1	The breathing system	Rotate the 3D model and click each part.
11	11.1	Breathing and exercise	Extended.
11		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:

The order matters: trachea, then bronchi, then bronchioles, then alveoli.
"Thin" refers to the surface (one cell thick), not to the lungs being thin.
Cilia do not trap anything: the mucus traps, the cilia move the mucus.

Topic 12Respiration

Week 12

3 lessons, 2 hours 15 minutesTopic plan Lab: Gas exchange and respiration lab Assessment: topic question bank (24 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
12	12.1	Respiration in cells	In the Respiration tab a glucose molecule enters the cell and is broken down; the yellow sparks show the energy released.
12	12.2	Aerobic respiration	In the Respiration tab choose aerobic.
12	12.3	Anaerobic respiration	Go back to the Respiration tab and choose anaerobic in yeast, then anaerobic in muscles.
12		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:

Respiration releases energy that is already stored in glucose.
The temperature axis is the independent variable and the carbon dioxide volume is the dependent variable.
Oxygen is a reactant, not a product, and water is a product.

Topic 13Excretion in humans

Week 13

2 lessons, 1 hour 30 minutesTopic plan Lab: Excretion lab Assessment: topic question bank (16 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
13	13.1	Excretion and the liver	Respiration in every cell makes carbon dioxide, and the breakdown of excess amino acids makes urea.
13	13.1	The kidney	Extended.
13		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:

Do not mix up the ureter and the urethra.
Urea is made in the liver, not in the kidneys.
Egestion is not excretion.

Topic 14Coordination and response

Weeks 13 to 15

5 lessons, 3 hours 45 minutesTopic plan Lab: Nerves and the eye lab Assessment: topic question bank (40 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
13	14.1	The nervous system	Switch between the whole system, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, then pick the types of neurone.
14	14.2	Sense organs and the eye	Click each part of the cut-away eye (or its chip) to read what it does.
14	14.3	Hormones	Choose male or female, then click each gland.
14	14.4	Homeostasis	Press Eat a sugary meal and watch the graph of blood glucose.
15	14.5	Tropic responses	Choose an experiment, press Grow for 3 days and watch the seedlings.
15		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:

A nerve and a neurone are not the same thing.
In a spinal reflex the response does not wait for the brain.
Neurotransmitter crosses the gap by diffusion, not as an electrical impulse and not by active transport.

Topic 15Drugs

Week 15

1 lesson, 45 minutesTopic plan Lab: Diseases, immunity and drugs lab Assessment: topic question bank (8 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
15	15.1	Drugs and antibiotics	In biology the word drug is wider than the medicines in a pharmacy.
15		Assessment point	Topic question bank, 8 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score.

Examiner traps to pre-empt:

Do not define a drug as "a medicine" or "an illegal substance".
Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses, and they do not "kill germs" in general.
The antibiotic does not cause the mutation, and bacteria do not "get used to" or become immune to the drug.

Topic 16Reproduction

Weeks 15 to 18

8 lessons, 6 hoursTopic plan Lab: Reproduction in plants lab Assessment: topic question bank (64 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
15	16.1	Asexual reproduction	In the lab, choose asexual (runners) and grow the offspring.
16	16.2	Sexual reproduction	In the gametes tab the sperm and egg cell are drawn at the same scale.
16	16.3	Flowers and pollination	In the lab one petal is removed and the ovary is see-through.
16	16.3	Fertilisation and germination	Extended.
17	16.4	Human reproductive systems and gametes	The lab shows diagrammatic models of both systems.
17	16.4	Pregnancy and the placenta	In the fetus tab the front of the uterus is see-through.
17	16.5	Sex hormones and the menstrual cycle	In the reproductive systems tab, switch between female and male and read the puberty box under the parts list.
18	16.6	Sexually transmitted infections	The lab models a community of 70 people, three of them infected at the start.
18		Assessment point	Topic question bank, 64 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score.

Examiner traps to pre-empt:

Asexual offspring are not just similar to the parent: they are genetically identical.
Do not just write "it is quicker" or "there is no variation".
Fertilisation is the fusion of the nuclei, not just the sperm touching or entering the egg.

Topic 17Inheritance

Weeks 18 to 19

5 lessons, 3 hours 45 minutesTopic plan Lab: Chromosomes, genes and cell division lab Assessment: topic question bank (40 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
18	17.1	Chromosomes, genes and proteins	Use the zoom chips in the sim to go from a whole cell to its nucleus, one chromosome, the DNA double helix and finally two alleles of one gene.
18	17.2	Mitosis	The sim cell has two pairs of chromosomes: red ones came from one parent and blue ones from the other.
19	17.3	Meiosis	The sim cell is in an ovary or testis.
19	17.4	Monohybrid crosses	In the sim, tall (T) is dominant to dwarf (t) in pea plants.
19	17.4	Pedigrees, codominance and sex linkage	This family tree follows albinism, caused by a recessive allele (a).
19		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 gene and allele.
The mother cannot decide the sex of a child: all her eggs carry an X.
The DNA itself never leaves the nucleus.

Topic 18Variation and selection

Weeks 20 to 21

4 lessons, 3 hoursTopic plan Lab: Variation and selection lab Assessment: topic question bank (32 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
20	18.1	Variation	In the sim a class of 40 people stands on the floor.
20	18.2	Adaptive features	Start with the arctic fox in the sim.
20	18.3	Natural selection	The sim starts with 40 moths on a tree trunk, 10% of them dark.
21	18.3	Selective breeding	The sim shows a field of 24 wheat plants with ears of grain of different sizes.
21		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:

Continuous variation is not caused by the environment alone.
A feature measured in numbers is not automatically continuous.
Mutagens do not aim at particular genes.

Topic 19Organisms and their environment

Weeks 21 to 22

4 lessons, 3 hoursTopic plan Lab: Ecology lab Assessment: topic question bank (32 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
21	19.1	Energy flow	Press Release sunlight and follow the glowing packets of energy leaving the Sun.
21	19.2	Food chains, webs and pyramids	In the food web every arrow points from the organism that is eaten to the organism that eats it, which is the direction energy flows.
22	19.3	The carbon and nitrogen cycles	Carbon atoms (the black dots) travel along every arrow.
22	19.4	Populations	Press Start: five yeast cells go into a flask of sugar solution and the graph plots the number of cells against time in hours.
22		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 never "used up" or "made".
Heat lost to the environment cannot be used by plants for photosynthesis.
Arrows in a food chain show the direction of energy flow, so they point towards the eater: grass → rabbit means the rabbit eats the grass.

Topic 20Human influences on ecosystems

Weeks 22 to 23

4 lessons, 3 hoursTopic plan Lab: Human influences lab Assessment: topic question bank (32 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
22	20.1	Food supply	In the sim a wheat field starts with no help at all: weeds (purple) grow between the crop and insect pests (black) swarm over it.
23	20.2	Habitat destruction	Drag the slider to clear the forest, 5% at a time.
23	20.3	Pollution	Choose a source, excess fertiliser or untreated sewage, and press Wash it in.
23	20.4	Conservation	Set the fishing effort, choose any conservation measures and press Fish for 30 years.
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:

Insecticides kill insects; herbicides kill weeds (plants).
"Higher profit" on its own is a weak answer.
Biodiversity is the number of different species, not the number of individual organisms.

Topic 21Biotechnology and genetic modification

Weeks 24 to 25

4 lessons, 3 hoursTopic plan Lab: Biotechnology lab Assessment: topic question bank (32 MCQ)Notes PDF

Week	Ref	Lesson	Learning intention
24	21.1	Why bacteria are used	Press Start dividing.
24	21.2	Yeast and enzymes in industry	Choose bread-making or biofuel (ethanol), set the temperature slider (5 to 60 °C) and press Start.
24	21.2	Fermenters	Extended.
25	21.3	Genetic modification	Press Next step to work through how bacteria are made to produce human insulin, then use the GM crop chips (herbicide resistance, insect resistance, nutrition) to see the plant examples.
25		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:

Doubling is not adding.
A plasmid is not the bacterial chromosome and it is not a nucleus.
In bread-making the dough rises because of carbon dioxide, not ethanol and not oxygen.

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 pageIGCSE Biology 0610

Original work by the TheLucidSTEM team. Week numbers assume 3 lessons a week unless you change the control; the download carries the numbers shown.