A Science teacher by trade, I've also been known to be found teaching Maths and PE! However, strange as it may seem, my real love is designing resources that can be used by other teachers to maximise the experience of the students. I am constantly thinking of new ways to engage a student with a topic and try to implement that in the design of the lessons.
A Science teacher by trade, I've also been known to be found teaching Maths and PE! However, strange as it may seem, my real love is designing resources that can be used by other teachers to maximise the experience of the students. I am constantly thinking of new ways to engage a student with a topic and try to implement that in the design of the lessons.
This detailed and engaging lesson supports students with their revision in the build up to their PAPER 1 (Biological processes) mocks or final assessment. The wide range of tasks and activities will challenge them on their knowledge of modules 1, 2, 3 and 5 of the OCR A-level biology A specification, allowing them to identify any areas which require further attention before the examinations.
Included in the range of tasks are exam-style questions and understanding checks and all answers are embedded into the PowerPoint. There are quiz rounds to maintain engagement and to encourage healthy competition, as well as guided discussion periods to provide opportunities for students to support each other.
The following content is directly covered by this revision lesson:
The nature of the genetic code
Globular and fibrous proteins
Protein structure
The role of the heart valves in the cardiac cycle
The conduction system of the heart
The autonomic control of heart rate
The mitotic cell cycle
DNA replication
The events of meiosis that contribute to genetic variation
The structure of starch and cellulose
The light-dependent and light-independent reactions of photosynthesis
The ultrastructure of eukaryotic cells
Calculating the size of an object under the optical microscope
Saltatory conduction
The structure and function of sensory and motor neurones
Depolarisation and the initiation of an action potential
Many of the tasks have been differentiated to maintain challenge whilst providing access to all.
This is an extensive lesson with many tasks so it is estimated that it will take over 3 hours of teaching time if covered in full, but teachers may choose to use sections to focus on a specific topic.
If you and your students enjoy this lesson and find it beneficial, a revision challenging the content of modules 1, 2, 4 & 6 as assessed in PAPER 2 (Biological diversity) has also been uploaded.
These 12 lessons cover points 15.1 (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 & 12) and 15.2 (1, 2 & 3) from topic 15 of CIE A-level biology specification (for assessment in 2025 - 27). This topic is titled control and coordination and concerns comparisons between the endocrine and nervous system in mammals, and then the key structure of the nervous system before looking at this control in plants.
Each lesson has been extensively planned and contains a wide range of engaging activities and tasks, interspersed with current and prior knowledge checks.
The sensory, motor & intermediate neurones and cholinergic synapses lessons have been shared for free, if you want to download first to get an idea for the quality of these lessons.
This lesson describes the role of gibberellin in stem elongation, including the role of the dominant allele, Le, and the recessive allele, le. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover specification point 16.2 (7) of the CIE A-level biology specification (for assessment in 2025-27).
The lesson begins with the introduction of the Le gene loci, along with some initial details of this gene’s regulation of height in some plants. The students met gibberellin in topic 15, so the first of several prior knowledge checks is used to challenge them to recall the name of this plant hormone from a description about seed germination. Moving forwards, the students will learn that the enzyme encoded for by the Le gene is involved in the gibberellin synthesis pathway, where it catalyses the conversion of the inactive precursor GA20 to GA1, which is active gibberellin. As this lesson is part of topic 16, the genetics that underpins the biology is continually referenced, and again, an exam-style question is used to ensure that students recognise that homozygous dominant and heterozygous genotypes would be expressed as tall plants.
The rest of the lesson considers the recessive allele, and how the substitution of alanine with threonine affects the shape of the active site, rendering the enzyme as non-functional.
All answers to the knowledge checks are embedded into the PowerPoint to allow students to assess their progress.
This lesson describes the role of gibberellin in stem elongation, and considers the experimental evidence which supports this theory. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover specification point 5.1.5 (d) as set out in the OCR A-level biology A specification.
The lesson begins with the introduction of the Le gene loci, along with some initial details of this gene’s regulation of height in some plants. The students met gibberellin in a previous lesson in this module on the roles of plant hormones, so the first of several prior knowledge checks is used to challenge them to recall the name of this plant hormone from a description about seed germination. Moving forwards, the students will learn that the enzyme encoded for by the Le gene is involved in the gibberellin synthesis pathway, where it catalyses the conversion of the inactive precursor GA20 to GA1, which is active gibberellin. As this lesson is normally taught before patterns of inheritance in module 6.2.1, a step-by-step guide is used to describe how to use a genetic diagram to predict the phenotypic outcomes. An exam-style question is used to ensure that students recognise that homozygous dominant and heterozygous genotypes would be expressed as tall plants.
The next part of the lesson considers the recessive allele, and how the substitution of alanine with threonine affects the shape of the active site, rendering the enzyme as non-functional.
The final part of the lesson looks at examples of investigations which have been used to obtain experimental evidence which support the theory of the role of gibberellin in stem elongation.
All answers to the knowledge checks are embedded into the PowerPoint to allow students to assess their progress.
The role of gibberellin in seed germination is covered in “The roles of plant hormones” lesson which has been uploaded for free.
All 11 lessons included in this bundle are detailed and contain a wide variety of tasks to challenge and engage the students whilst covering this potentially difficult topic. The content of this module, titled plant and animal responses, is regularly assessed in the PAPER 1 and 3 OCR examinations, so these lessons have been filled with assessment-style questions to continually expose the students to this type of material.
The following specification points are covered by this bundle:
5.1.5 a, b, d, g, h, i, k, and l.
If you would like to sample the quality of the lessons before committing to the bundle, then why not download the role of plant hormones, organisation of the nervous system and sliding filament theory lessons, as these have been shared for free?
This lesson describes the steps involved in the closure of the Venus flytrap as a response to touch by an insect or an arachnid. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the detail of point (1) of topic 15.2 of the CIE A-level biology specification (for assessment in 2025 - 27).
The lesson begins with a recall of tropisms as directional growth responses in plants and a short amount of time is allocated to discuss the importance of phototropism and gravitropism. This leads into the introduction of thigmotropism as a directional response to touch, before the students will learn that the closure of the Venus flytrap is an example of a thigmonastic response, a response that’s independent of direction. The students are presented with a passage that describes the classification, and structure of the Venus flytrap, as well as the stimulus that results in the closure. They must answer 8 exam-style questions on the content of the passage, which challenges their understanding of the current topic and links to other topics such as organelles and biological molecules. All answers are embedded into the PowerPoint to allow students to assess their progress.
The rest of the lesson focuses on the steps involved in the mechanism of closure, including the detection of touch by the sensors in the trigger hairs, the movement of ions, and the elongation of the cells in the lobes of the modified leaves.
This mini-bundle covers key content in the plant half of module 5.1.5, which is titled “Plant and animal responses”. The students knowledge and understanding of the plant topics tends to be weaker than that of the animals, so these 3 lessons have to be planned at length to break the content down into smaller chunks and there are multiple opportunities for understanding to be checked.
If you would like to sample the quality of these lessons and the time that has been put into their design, then why not download the “role of plant hormones” lesson as this has been shared for free.
This bundle of 8 lessons are packed with a wide variety of tasks that will engage and challenge the students whilst covering the content of the animal responses section of module 5.1.5 of the OCR A-level biology A specification. The lessons specifically cover points 5.1.5 (g, h, i, k and l).
If you want to sample the quality of lessons in this bundle, then why not download the sliding filament model of muscular contraction lesson as this has been shared for free?
This detailed lesson describes the different types of plant responses, including responses to abiotic stress and herbivory and the range of tropisms. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been primarily designed to cover the content set out in point (a) of module 5.1.5 of the OCR A-level biology A specification, but as the role of auxins in phototropism and gravitropism are also described, some aspects of point (b) are covered. This lesson also acts as an excellent revision tool as the students’ knowledge of previously-covered topics including classification, defences against pathogens, and biological molecules are constantly challenged.
The lesson begins with one of these challenges, where the students must recognise 7 key terms from their descriptions and use the respective 1st letters to reveal the key term, stimuli. This leads into the recognition of the need for plants to respond to these changes in the environment to increase their chances of survival. Students will have briefly encountered auxins at GCSE and this first part of the lesson builds on this knowledge, introducing IAA, and ensuring that they know the fundamentals, including how these hormones move from the tips to the growing regions. A series of application questions will challenge them to describe how plants display positive phototropism and roots display positive gravitropism.
Moving forwards, the students will learn that nastic responses are independent of the direction of the external stimuli and the Venus flytrap is used as an example. Again, a series of exam-style questions will challenge the students on their knowledge of topics related to this carnivorous plant.
The remainder of the lesson considers responses to abiotic stress, such as water stress and the herbivory response, including the production of alkaloids and pheromones.
The answers to all understanding checks are embedded into the PowerPoint to allow the students to assess their progress.
It’s fair to say that the plant-based topics are not every students’ favourite, so the lessons in this bundle are full of engaging activities and knowledge checks to maintain motivation whilst ensuring that the A-level details are understood. These 5 lessons cover the plant sections of topics 14 and 15 of the CIE A-level biology specification (for assessment in 2025 - 27) and complement each other by building on knowledge attained in the previous lesson.
This bundle of 3 lessons covers the content of topic 15.2 of the CIE A-level biology specification (for assessment in 2025 - 27). This topic, titled control and coordination in plants, isn’t always a student favourite, so additional time has been put into the design and planning to maintain engagement whilst ensuring that the A-level content is covered in detail. A lot of these biological processes are sequences of events, so step-by-step guides are used to aid retention. Understanding checks are found throughout the lessons, as well as prior knowledge checks which challenge content from earlier plant-based topics such as 14.2 and 7. All answers to these checks are embedded into the PowerPoints to allow the students to assess their progress.
Topic 15.1, control and coordination in mammals, is also available on here, as well as the larger bundle containing all the topic 15 lessons.
