1. BIOLOGY
CORE revision session

2. Overview of the syllabus
 B1.1 Keeping healthy
 B1.2 Nerves and hormones
 B1.3 The use and abuse of drugs
 B1.4 Interdependence and adaptation
 B1.5 Energy and biomass in food chains
 B1.6 Waste materials from plants and
animals
 B1.7 Genetic variation and its control
 B1.8 Evolution

3. Keeping healthy – diet and
exercise
 balanced diet
 metabolic rate
 cholesterol
 obesity
 exercise
evaluate
 effect of lifestyle/food
on health
 slimming programmes

4. Keeping healthy –
infectious disease
 bacteria/fungi/virus  virus infects inside cells
 antigen/antibody  bacteria don’t change
 antibiotics deliberately to become
resistant: mutation and
 antibiotic resistance
natural selection
 immunisation
 immunisation – we don’t
 studying microorganisms –
“remember how to fight the
aseptic techniques/petri dishes disease in the future” ; we
evaluate do “make antibodies
 Semmelweiss quicker”
 mutations and  read up on
epidemics/pandemics mmr/semmelweiss
 vaccination (pro/con)

5. Nerves and hormones
 receptor sensory n  relay
 nervous system  motor n  effector
 reflexes
 synapse (how do drugs affect
these?)
 hormones
 homeostasis:
 controlling internal
water/ions/temp/blood
environment –
water/temp/blood sugar/ ions  FSH  Oes LH Prog
 menstrual cycle
 O/P=contra; FSH = fertility
 controlling fertility
 know how IVF works and
remember the pill needs to be
 tropisms
taken every day to be effective
 auxin
evaluate
 hormones to control fertility
 plant hormones in horticulture

6. Google images: Menstrual
cycle
Be able to
interpret these
kind of
diagrams

7. The use and abuse of drugs
 development of medicines  dependency/
(clinical trials) addiction/withdrawal
 legal/illegal drugs symptoms
 cannabis
 thalidomide
Evaluate
 why use illegal drugs
 progression from recreational
drugs to hard drugs
 effect of drugs on health
 performance enhancing drugs in
sport

8. Interdependance and
adaptation
 competition  plants –
 adaptation water/minerals/light/sp
 extremophiles
ace
 lichens/invertebrate
 animals –
food/mates/territory
evaluate
 desert/arctic
 data on how
environmental changes  detering predators
affects distribution/
behaviour of
organisms.

9. Energy and biomass in
food chains
 Everything starts with the sun.
 Use information in the tables to help
you work out the order. Remember:
 Plant  Plant eating animal  animal eating animal
 The arrows represent energy flow.
 Pyramids:
 Biomass = pyramid; Number = odd
 You must draw pyramid of biomass in
proportion
 Don’t forget to label
 Energy losses – reason why biomass less

10. Waste materials from
plants and animals
 Carbon cycle
 Photosynthesis/ Respiration Feeding
 Decay
 Decomposers – bacteria and fungi
 What are the best conditions for making
compost?
 Evaluate – necessity/effectiveness of
recycling organic kitchen or garden waste

11. Genetic variation and its
control plant cloning: cuttings/tissue
culture

 animal cloning: embryo
 cell  nucleus  DNA splitting/ nuclear transfer
 asexual/sexual reproduction
 genetic engineering
 cloning
 make informed judgements
about the economic, social
and ethical issues concerning
cloning and genetic
engineering, including
genetically modified (GM)
crops

12.  restriction
enzymes – cut
DNA

13. Evolution
 evolution
 natural selection
 extinction
 evolution –
simplecomplex over
millions of years
HSW
 interpret evidence relating to
 natural selection:
evolutionary theory organisms best suited
 differences in Darwin’s theory survive to reproduce
and other theories and reasons pass on genes for
for these survival to offspring
 why it took a long time to accept
Darwin’s theory
 similarities/differences
in organisms show
ecological/evolutionary
relationships

14. Common ancestors and
family trees
 can be used to
find the most
recent common
ancestor of two
species – the
more recent the
ancestor the
more closely
related those
species are.