This lesson describes how the hydrolysis of ATP supplies energy for biological processes and how the phosphorylation of ADP requires energy. The PowerPoint has been designed to cover point 5.6 of the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A specification and also describes how ATP is made in the light-dependent stage of photosynthesis and is needed in the light-independent stage. The start of the lesson focuses on the structure of this energy currency and challenges the students to use their knowledge of nucleotides and specifically RNA nucleotides to recognise the components of ATP. As a result, they will learn that this molecule consists of adenine, ribose and three phosphate groups. In order to release the stored energy, ATP must be broken down and students will be given time to discuss which reaction will be involved as well as the products of this reaction. Time is taken to describe how the hydrolysis of ATP can be coupled to energy-requiring reactions within cells and the examples of skeletal muscle contraction are used as this is covered in greater detail in topic 7. The final part of the lesson considers how ATP is formed when ADP is phosphorylated and students will learn that this occurs in the mitochondria and chloroplast during aerobic respiration and photosynthesis respectively, so that it ties in with the upcoming lessons in topic 5 and 7.

This fully-resourced lesson describes the conversion of glucose to pyruvate during glycolysis in the cytoplasm and produces ATP and reduced NAD. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying differentiated resources have been designed to cover point 5.1 (i) as detailed in the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification and includes the phosphorylation of glucose, the breakdown to glycerate-3-phosphate and the subsequent oxidation to produce ATP and the reduced coenzyme. The lesson begins with the introduction of the name of the stage and then explains how the phosphorylation of the monosaccharides, the breakdown into GP and the production of the ATP, reduced coenzymes and pyruvate are the stages that need to be known for this specification. Time is taken to go through each of these stages and key points such as the use of ATP in phosphorylation are explained so that students can understand how this affects the net yield. A quick quiz competition is used to introduce NAD and the students will learn that the reduction of this coenzyme, which is followed by the transport of the protons and electrons to the cristae for the electron transport chain is critical for the overall production of ATP. Understanding checks, in a range of forms, are included throughout the lesson so that students can assess their progress and any misconceptions are immediately addressed.

This lesson describes the mechanism of ventilation in mammals, including the roles of the ribcage, intercostal muscles and the diaphragm. The content of the engaging PowerPoint has been designed to cover specification point 3.1.3 (d) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification and describes the mechanism of inhalation and exhalation at rest. The lesson begins with a focus on the diaphragm and students will discover that this sheet of muscle is found on the floor of the thoracic cavity. Whilst planning the lesson, it was deemed important to introduce this region of the body at an early stage because the best descriptions will regularly reference the changes seen in this cavity. As the mechanism of inhalation is a cascade of events, the details of this process are covered in a step by step format using bullet points. At each step, time is taken to discuss the key details which includes an introduction to Boyle’s law that reveals the inverse relationship between volume and pressure. It is crucial that students are able to describe how the actions of the diaphragm, external intercostal muscles and ribcage result in an increased volume of the thoracic cavity and a subsequent decrease in the pressure, which is below the pressure outside of the body. At this point, their recall of the structures of the mammalian gas exchange system is tested, to ensure that they can describe the pathway the air takes on moving into the lungs. The remainder of the lesson involves a task which challenges the students to describe exhalation and then the accessory muscles involved in forced ventilation are also considered.

This fully-resourced lesson describes how light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration and temperature limit the rate of photosynthesis. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 5.2.1 (g) (i) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification and also includes a brief consideration of water stress. The lesson has been specifically written to tie in with the three previous lessons in this module which covered the structure of the chloroplast, the light-dependent and light-independent stages and the uses of TP. Exam-style questions are included throughout the lesson and these require the students to explain why light intensity is important for both reactions as well as challenging them on their ability to describe how the relative concentrations of GP, TP and RuBP would change as carbon dioxide concentration decreases. There are also links to previous topics such as enzymes when they are asked to explain why an increase in temperature above the optimum will limit the rate of photosynthesis. Step by step guides are included to support them to form some of the answers and mark schemes are always displayed so that they can quickly assess their understanding and address any misconceptions.

This lesson describes how to use the magnification formula to calculate the actual sizes of specimens in a range of units. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 1.1 (e) of the CIE A-level Biology specification but can also be used as a revision tool on the content of the previous two lessons as prior knowledge checks are included along with current understanding checks. The students are likely to have met the magnification formula at iGCSE so this lesson has been written to build on that knowledge and to support them with more difficult questions when they have to calculate actual size without directly being given the magnification. A step by step guide is used to walk the students through the methodology and useful tips are provided. The final quiz round of the competition that has run over the course of these 3 lessons will challenge them to convert between units so they are confident when challenged to present actual size in millimetres, micrometres or nanometres.

This fully-resourced lesson describes how GALP is used as a raw material in the production of monosaccharides, amino acids and other molecules. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been primarily designed to cover point 5.7 (vii) of the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification concerning the uses of GALP but as the lesson makes continual references to biological molecules, it can act as a revision tool for a lot of the content of topic 1. The previous lesson covered the light-independent stage and this lesson builds on that understanding to demonstrate how the product of the Calvin cycle, glyceraldehyde phosphate, is used. The start of the lesson challenges the students to identify two errors in a diagram of the cycle so that they can recall that most of the GALP molecules are used in the regeneration of ribulose bisphosphate. A quiz version of Pointless runs throughout the lesson and this is used to challenge the students to recall a biological molecule from its description. Once each molecule has been revealed, time is taken to go through the details of the formation and synthesis of this molecule from GALP or from GP in the case of fatty and amino acids. The following molecules are considered in detail during this lesson: glucose (and fructose and galactose) sucrose starch and cellulose glycerol and fatty acids amino acids nucleic acids A range of activities are used to challenge their prior knowledge of these molecules and mark schemes are always displayed for the exam-style questions to allow the students to assess their understanding. As detailed above, this lesson has been specifically written to tie in with the earlier lessons in this module on the structure of the chloroplast and the light-dependent and light-independent stages of photosynthesis.

This fully-resourced lesson describes how the mutations that occur during DNA replication can effect a protein’s primary structure and lead to disorders. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover points 2.14 (i) & (ii) as detailed in the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification and focuses on the effects of substitutions, deletions and insertions and considers a real life biological example in sickle cell anaemia. In order to understand how a change in the base sequence can affect the order of the amino acids, students must be confident in their understanding and application of protein synthesis which was covered in the previous lessons. Therefore, the start of the lesson focuses on transcription and translation and students are reminder of how to use the codon table to identify amino acids. Moving forwards, a task called known as THE WALL is used to introduce to the names of three types of mutation whilst challenging the students to recognise three terms which are associated with the genetic code. The main focus of the lesson is base substitutions and how these mutations may or may not cause a change to the amino acid sequence. The students are challenged to use their knowledge of the degenerate nature of the genetic code to explain how a silent mutation can result. Students will learn that a substitution is responsible for the new allele that causes sickle cell anaemia and they are tested on their understanding through an exam-style question. As with all of the questions, a mark scheme is included in the PowerPoint which can be displayed to allow the students to assess their understanding. The rest of the lesson looks at base deletions and base insertions and students are introduced to the idea of a frameshift mutation. One particular task challenges the students to evaluate the statement that base deletions have a bigger impact on primary structure than base substitutions. This is a differentiated task and they have to compare the fact that the reading frame is shifted by a deletion against the change in a single base by a substitution

This fully-resourced lesson describes how magnification and resolution can be achieved using light and electron microscopy. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the content of points 3.7 (i) & (ii) of the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification and also considers how specimens are stained. To promote engagement and focus throughout this lesson, the PowerPoint contains a quiz competition with 7 rounds. The quiz rounds found in this lesson will introduce the objective lens powers, the names of the parts of a light microscope and emphasise some of the other key terms such as resolution. The final round checks on their understanding of the different numbers that were mentioned in the lesson, namely the differing maximum magnifications and resolutions. Time is taken to explain the meaning of both of these microscopic terms so that students can recognise their importance when considering the organelles that were met earlier in topic 3. By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to explain how a light microscope uses light to form an image and will understand how electrons transmitted through a specimen or across the surface will form an image with a TEM or a SEM respectively.

This fully-resourced lesson describes the ultrastructure of eukaryotic cells and the functions of each of the organelles in these cells. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover points 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3 of the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification and therefore this lesson also describes how all living organisms are made of cells and that these cells are organised into tissues, organs and organ system in multicellular organisms. As cells are the building blocks of living organisms, it makes sense that they would be heavily involved in all of the 8 topics in the Edexcel course and intricate planning has ensured that links to previously covered topics as well as upcoming ones are made throughout the lesson. The cell theory is introduced at the start of the lesson and the first 2 principles are explained. Students will see how epithelial cells are grouped together to form different types of epithelium in the respiratory tract and their prior knowledge of gas exchange at the alveoli from topic 2 is tested with a series of questions. The rest of the lesson uses a wide range of activities, that include exam-style questions, class discussion points and quick quiz competitions, to maintain motivation and engagement whilst describing the relationship between the structure and function of the following organelles: nucleus nucleolus centrioles ribosomes rough endoplasmic reticulum Golgi apparatus lysosomes smooth endoplasmic reticulum mitochondria cell surface membrane All of the worksheets have been differentiated to support students of differing abilities whilst maintaining challenge Due to the detail that is included in this lesson, it is estimated that it will take in excess of 3 hours of allocated A-level teaching time to go through all of the tasks

This fully-resourced lesson describes how post-transcriptional changes to mRNA enable 1 gene to give rise to multiple proteins. The detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 3.19 of the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification. The lesson begins with a knowledge recall as the students have to recognise the definition of a gene as a sequence of bases on a DNA molecule that codes for a sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide chain. This description was introduced in topic 2 and the aim of the start of the lesson is to introduce the fact that despite this definition, most of the nuclear DNA in eukaryotes doesn’t actually code for proteins. A quick quiz competition is then used to introduce exons as the coding regions within a gene before students are challenged to predict the name of the non-coding regions and then to suggest a function for these introns. Moving forwards, pre-mRNA as a primary transcript is introduced and students will learn that this isn’t the mature strand that moves off to the ribosome for translation. Instead, a process called splicing takes place where the introns are removed and the remaining exons are joined together. Another quick quiz round leads to an answer of 20000 and students will learn that this is the number of protein-coding genes in the human genome. Importantly, the students are then told that the number of proteins that are synthesised is much higher than this value and a class discussion period encourages them to come up with biological suggestions for this discrepancy between the two numbers. The lesson concludes with a series of understanding and application questions where students will learn that alternative splicing enables a gene to produce more than a single protein and that this natural phenomenon greatly increases biodiversity.

This fully-resourced lesson describes the role of mitosis and the cell cycle in producing genetically identical daughter cells. The detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 3.14 of the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification and explains the importance of these cells for growth and asexual reproduction. In an earlier lesson covering meiosis (3.10), students were introduced to the different phases and structures involved in the cycle so this lesson builds on that by providing greater detail of the key events in each phase. Beginning with a focus on interphase, the importance of DNA replication is explained so that students can initially recognise that there are pairs of identical sister chromatids and then can understand how they are separated later in the cycle. A quiz competition has been written into the lesson and this runs throughout, challenging the students to identify the quantity of DNA in the cell (in terms of n) at different points of the cycle. The main part of the lesson focuses on prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase and describes how the chromosomes behave in these stages. Students will understand how the cytoplasmic division that occurs in cytokinesis results in the production of genetically identical daughter cells. This leads into a series of understanding and application questions where students have to identify the various roles of mitosis in living organisms as well as tackling a Maths in a Biology context question. The lesson concludes with a final round of MITOSIS SNAP where they only shout out this word when a match is seen between the name of a phase, an event and a picture.

This fully-resourced lesson describes how a triglyceride is synthesised and describes the differences between saturated and unsaturated lipids. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover specification points 1.5 (i) & (ii) as detailed in the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification and links are also made to related future topics such as the use of lipids as a substrate for respiration and the importance of the myelin sheath for the conduction of an electrical impulse. The lesson begins with a focus on the basic structure and roles of lipids, including the elements that are found in this biological molecule and some of the places in living organisms where they are found. Moving forwards, the students are challenged to recall the structure of the carbohydrates from earlier in topic 1 so that the structure of a triglyceride can be introduced. Students will learn that this macromolecule is formed from one glycerol molecule and three fatty acids and have to use their understanding of condensation reactions to draw the final structure. Time is taken to look at the difference in structure and properties of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and students will be able to identify one from the other when presented with a molecular formula. The final part of the lesson explores how the various properties of lipids mean that these molecules have numerous roles in organisms including that of an energy store and source and as an insulator of heat and electricity.

This detailed and engaging lesson describes how the passive transport of water molecules is brought about by osmosis. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the second part of specification point 4.2 (ii) as detailed in the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification and water potential is included throughout which will help students to prepare for core practical 6 It’s likely that students will have used the term concentration in their osmosis definitions at GCSE, so the aim of the starter task is to introduce water potential to allow students to begin to recognise osmosis as the movement of water molecules from a high water potential to a lower potential, with the water potential gradient. Time is taken to describe the finer details of water potential to enable students to understand that 0 is the highest value (pure water) and that this becomes negative once solutes are dissolved. Exam-style questions are used throughout the lesson to check on current understanding as well as prior knowledge checks which make links to previously covered topics such as the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. The remainder of the lesson focuses on the movement of water between cells and a solution when these animal and plant cells are suspended in hypotonic, hypertonic or isotonic solutions.

This lesson describes how passive transport is brought about (simple) diffusion and facilitated diffusion. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the first part of specification point 4.2 (ii) of the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification but also covers 4.2 (iii) as the relationship between the properties of a molecule and the method by which they are transported is discussed. The structure of the cell surface membrane was described in the previous lesson, so this lesson has been written to include continual references to the content of that lesson. This enables links to be made between the movement across a cell membrane with the concentration gradient, the parts of the membrane that are involved and any features that may increase the rate at which the molecules move. A series of questions about the alveoli are used to demonstrate how a large surface area, a short diffusion distance and the maintenance of a steep concentration gradient will increase the rate of simple diffusion. One of two quick quiz rounds is then used to introduce temperature and size of molecule as two further factors that can affect simple diffusion. The remainder of the lesson focuses on facilitated diffusion and describes how transmembrane proteins are needed to move small, polar or large molecules from a high concentration to a lower concentration across a partially permeable membrane

This fully-resourced lesson describes the structure of the cell surface membrane and references Singer and Nicholson’s fluid mosaic model. The detailed and engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover specification point 4.2 (i) of the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification and also makes clear links are made to related topics such as the binding of hormones as covered in topic 9 and the electron transport chain as covered in topic 5. The fluid mosaic model is introduced at the start of the lesson so that it can be referenced at appropriate points throughout the lesson. Students were introduced to phospholipids in topic 1 and an initial task challenges them to spot the errors in a passage describing the structure and properties of this molecule. This reminds them of the bilayer arrangement, with the hydrophilic phosphate heads protruding outwards into the aqueous solutions on the inside and the outside of the cell. In a link to some upcoming lessons on the transport mechanisms, the students will learn that only small, non-polar molecules can move by simple diffusion and that this is through the tails of the bilayer. This introduces the need for transmembrane proteins to allow large or polar molecules to move into the cell by facilitated diffusion and active transport. Proteins that act as receptors as also introduced and an opportunity is taken to make a link to topic 9 so that students can understand how hormones or drugs will bind to target cells in this way and cause the release of cAMP on the interior of the cell. Moving forwards, the structure of cholesterol is covered and students will learn that this hydrophobic molecule sits in the middle of the tails and therefore acts to regulate membrane fluidity. The final part of the lesson challenges the students to apply their newly-acquired knowledge to a series of questions where they have to explain why proteins may have moved when two cells are used and to suggest why there is a larger proportion of these proteins in the inner mitochondrial membrane than the outer membrane.

This fully-resourced lesson explains how an enzyme’s specificity is related to their 3D structure and enables them to act as biological catalysts. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover the first parts of specification point 1.4.2 and considers the details of Fischer’s lock and key hypothesis and Koshland’s induced-fit model to deepen student understanding of the mechanism of enzyme action The lesson has been specifically planned to tie in with related topics that were previously covered such as protein structure and globular proteins. This prior knowledge is tested through a series of exam-style questions along with current understanding and mark schemes are included in the PowerPoint so that students can assess their answers. Students will learn that enzymes are large globular proteins which contain an active site that consists of a small number of amino acids. Emil Fischer’s lock and key hypothesis is introduced to enable students to recognise that their specificity is the result of an active site that is complementary in shape to a single type of substrate. Time is taken to discuss key details such as the control of the shape of the active site by the tertiary structure of the protein. The induced-fit model is described so students can understand how the enzyme-susbtrate complex is stabilised and then students are challenged to order the sequence of events in an enzyme-controlled reaction. The lesson finishes with a focus on ATP synthase and DNA polymerase so that students are aware of these important intracellular enzymes when learning about the details of respiration and DNA replication before they are challenged on their knowledge of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins from topics 1.2 - 1.4 as they have to recognise some extracellular digestive enzymes.

This fully-resourced lesson describes how enzymes function intracellularly and extracellularly and explains their mode of action. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover points 3.1 (a, b & c) and considers the details of Fischer’s lock and key hypothesis and Koshland’s induced-fit model and explains how an enzyme’s specificity is related to their 3D structure and enables them to act as biological catalysts. The lesson has been planned to tie in with topic 2.3, and to challenge the students on their knowledge of protein structure and globular proteins. This prior knowledge is tested through a series of exam-style questions along with current understanding and mark schemes are included in the PowerPoint so that students can assess their answers. Students will learn that enzymes are large globular proteins which contain an active site that consists of a small number of amino acids. Emil Fischer’s lock and key hypothesis is introduced to enable students to recognise that their specificity is the result of an active site that is complementary in shape to a single type of substrate. Time is taken to discuss key details such as the control of the shape of the active site by the tertiary structure of the protein. The induced-fit model is described so students can understand how the enzyme-susbtrate complex is stabilised and then students are challenged to order the sequence of events in an enzyme-controlled reaction. The lesson finishes with a focus on ATP synthase and DNA polymerase so that students are aware of these important intracellular enzymes when learning about the details of respiration and DNA replication before they are challenged on their knowledge of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins from topics 1.2 - 1.4 as they have to recognise some extracellular digestive enzymes from descriptions of their biological molecule substrates.