NEW (2016) AQA AS Biology – Exchange Between Organisms and their Environment

This lesson is designed for the NEW AQA AS-level Biology course, particularly the ‘Organisms & their Environment’ module.

For more lessons designed to meet specification points for the NEW AQA A-level Biology course please visit my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/SWiftScience

A-Level lesson format: I teach in more of a lecture style compared to GCSE. In the majority of my A-level lessons the beginning portion of the lesson is mainly teacher-led, where students are expected to take notes onto a handout/in their books. This is then mixed in with student-led activities, as well as questions and exam prep.

You will find some of my slides have blank spaces for you to add more detail/descriptions/explanations. If you look at the ‘Notes’ section underneath each of these slides, you will find additional content which you can add in as you teach!

This lesson in exchange systems begins by asking students to think of example of exchange systems and the substances which would need to be exchanged. The next slide demonstrates the differences in exchange process for single and multicellular organisms. Notes are available under the slide for discussion.

Using the pictures on the slides, students will then identify some examples of substances that need to be interchanged between a living organism and its environment. Those images are then ordered specifically on the next slide to demonstrate SA and body size. If multicellular organisms relied on diffusion, they would die, so they have evolved in other ways!

Students should identify these evolved features in their next task. They will fill a table out to explain how each feature functions to help organisms exchange the substances they need. They should be able to identify why multicellular organisms need specialised exchange surfaces or systems.

The next slides explain Fick’s Law and define important terms before asking students to calculate the surface area of cells. Answers for self-assessment are on the following slide.

Students will then complete lab task CP8 to engage with the effect of SA:V ratio on the rate of diffusion. Materials and method are explained on the slides.

Exam-style summary questions are included to consolidate the lab task with lecture notes, and answers for self-assessment are on the following slide.

As a plenary, students will spend 60 seconds speaking with the person next to them about what they learned from the lesson over all.

All resources are included. Thanks for looking, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section and any feedback would be appreciated :)