Organisation | AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy Biology, Higher tier (8464)
Organisation
- 217 questions
- 12 subtopics
- Biology Paper 1
- Biology Paper 1
Organisation is examined in Biology Paper 1.
It covers 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.
Sample questions from Organisation
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Levels of organisation, and how enzymes work
List the levels of organisation in a multicellular organism, from the smallest to the largest.
Show the answer
Cells, then tissues, then organs, then organ systems, then the whole organism. -
Amylase, proteases and lipases
A meal contains a large amount of starch. Name the group of enzymes that will act on it and state what it becomes.
Show the answer
Carbohydrases, which break it down into simple sugars. -
The heart, the lungs and double circulation
What is a double circulatory system?
Show the answer
One in which blood passes through the heart twice for each complete circuit of the body. -
The pacemaker, the blood vessels and the blood
What is the role of platelets?
Show the answer
They help the blood to clot at a wound. -
Health issues
Name three factors other than disease that can have a profound effect on a person's health.
Show the answer
Diet, stress and a person's life situation. -
Risk factors and causal mechanisms in disease
Describe the effects of smoking and of alcohol on an unborn baby.
Show the answer
Smoking reduces the oxygen the baby receives so it grows less well, and alcohol can damage the development of its brain. -
Cancer
What is a benign tumour?
Show the answer
A growth of abnormal cells that stays contained in one area, usually within a membrane. -
Plant tissues, and transpiration and its rate
When results for transpiration rate at different temperatures are plotted, which variable belongs on the horizontal axis and why?
Show the answer
Temperature, because it is the variable that was deliberately changed.
The 12 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Levels of organisation, and how enzymes work | Cells, 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. | 20 |
| Amylase, proteases and lipases | Where 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. | 17 |
| Bile, food tests and the effect of pH on amylase | Uses 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. | 26 |
| The heart, the lungs and double circulation | Gas 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. | 16 |
| The pacemaker, the blood vessels and the blood | The 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. | 21 |
| Coronary heart disease: a non-communicable disease | Advantages 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. | 15 |
| Health issues | Health 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. | 20 |
| Risk factors and causal mechanisms in disease | The 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. | 20 |
| Sampling, correlation and interpreting risk data | Why 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. | 12 |
| Cancer | Cancer 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. | 14 |
| Plant tissues, and transpiration and its rate | Palisade 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. | 20 |
| Root hair cells, xylem, phloem and stomata | Root 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. | 16 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA GCSE Combined Science Trilogy Biology, Higher tier Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,080 questions with their answers.