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This lesson describes how an ever decreasing water potential is created in the renal medulla to enable water reabsorption in the loop of Henle and collecting duct. The PowerPoint and accompanying resource are part of the 4th lesson in a series of 5 lessons which have been designed to cover point 6.4.3 (Control of blood water potential) of the AQA A-level biology specification.
The lesson begins by challenging the students to recognise that the glomerular filtrate entering the loop will only contain water, ions and urea if the kidneys are functioning properly. Time is then taken to look at the structure of the loop of Henle, focusing on the descending and ascending limbs, and their differing permeabilities. Students will be reminded that this part of the nephron is located in the renal medulla, before a step-by-step guide is used to describe how the transfer of ions, particularly sodium ions, from the ascending limb to the descending limb, creates a very negative water potential in this region of the kidney. This allows water to move out of the descending limb to the tissue fluid and then into the capillaries.
The next part of the lesson challenges students to consider the bigger picture as they learn that this decreasing water potential in the medulla allows water to be reabsorbed from the filtrate in the collecting duct too.
The remainder of the lesson uses the real-world examples of the hopping mouse and kangaroo rat to check student understanding, and there are also prior knowledge checks to encourage students to make links to relevant content from earlier topics. All answers are embedded into the PowerPoint.
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A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.
Control of blood water potential (Topic 6.4.3 AQA A-level biology)
This bundle of 5 lessons have been designed to cover the content of point 6.4.3 of the AQA A-level biology specification, which is titled "Control of blood water potential". The lessons describe the structure of the glomerulus, Bowman's capsule, PCT, loop of Henle, DCT and collecting duct, and explain how these structures are related to their respective functions. Each lesson is filled with a variety of tasks which will engage the students whilst ensuring that the detailed content is delivered. There are multiple understanding and prior knowledge checks to allow the students to assess their progress against the current topic and their ability to recall relevant content from previous topics. All answers to these checks are embedded into the PowerPoint.
Topic 6.4: Homeostasis is the maintenance of a stable internal environment (AQA A-level Biology)
Each of the 8 lessons that are included in this bundle are fully-resourced and have been designed to cover the content as detailed in topic 6.4 (Homeostasis is the maintenance of a stable internal environment) of the AQA A-Level Biology specification. The specification points that are covered within these lessons include: * The principles of homeostasis * The importance of maintaining temperature and blood glucose concentrations * Negative feedback systems * The action of insulin, glucagon and the role of the liver in blood glucose control * The role of adrenaline * The causes of type I and II diabetes and their control * The structure of the nephron and its numerous roles * The formation of the glomerular filtrate by ultrafiltration * Reabsorption of glucose and water by the proximal convoluted tubule * Maintaining a gradient of sodium ions in the medulla by the loop of Henle * The roles of the hypothalamus, the posterior pituitary gland and ADH in osmoregulation The lessons have been written to include a wide range of activities and numerous understanding and prior knowledge checks so students can assess their progress against the current topic as well as be challenged to make links to other topics within this topic and earlier topics If you would like to see the quality of the lessons, download the ultrafiltration lesson which is free
AQA A-level Biology Topic 6: Organisms respond to changes in their internal and external environments
This bundle contains 19 fully-resourced and detailed lessons that have been designed to cover the content of topic 6 of the AQA A-level Biology specification which concerns the responses of organisms to stimuli. The wide range of activities included in each lesson will engage the students whilst the detailed content is covered and the understanding and prior knowledge checks allow them to assess their progress on the current topic as well as challenging them to make links to other related topics. Most of the tasks are differentiated to allow differing abilities to access the work and be challenged. The following sub-topics are covered in this bundle of lessons: * Survival and response in flowering plants * The role of sensory receptors as outlined by the Pacinian corpuscle * The human retina as a sensory receptor * The differences in rods and cones that enable different sensitivity to light, colour and visual acuity * The roles of the SAN, AVN, Bundle of His and Purkyne fibres in the conduction system of the heart * The control of heart rate * The structure of a myelinated motor neurone * The factors that affect the speed of conduction of an impulse * The generation and transmission of nerve impulses * The transmission at a cholinergic synapse and a neuromuscular junction * Summation * The contraction of skeletal muscles * The structure and properties of slow and fast skeletal muscle fibres * The principles of homeostasis including negative feedback systems * The control of blood glucose concentration by the controlled release of insulin and glucagon * The causes and control of diabetes type I and II * The gross structure of the kidney * The detailed structure of the nephron * The production of glomerular filtrate * The reabsorption of glucose and water in the PCT * Maintaining a gradient of sodium ions in the medulla by the loop of Henle * The role of the hypothalamus, posterior pituitary and ADH in osmoregulation This is one of the 8 topics which have to be covered over the length of the 2 year course and therefore it is expected that the teaching time for this bundle will be in excess of 2 months If you want to see the quality of the lessons before purchasing then the lessons on responses in flowering plants, saltatory conduction, the contraction of skeletal muscles and ultrafiltration are free resources to download
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