This lesson describes the role of the hypothalamus and the mechanisms of thermoregulation that maintain the body in dynamic equilibrium during exercise. The PowerPoint has been designed to cover point 7.12 of the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A (Salters Nuffield) specification. Students were introduced to homeostasis at GCSE and this lesson has been written to build on that knowledge and to add the key detail needed at this level. Focusing on the three main parts of a homeostatic control system, the students will learn about the role of the internal and peripheral thermoreceptors, the thermoregulatory centre in the hypothalamus and the range of effectors which bring about the responses to restore optimum levels. The following responses are covered in this lesson: Vasodilation Increased sweating Body hairs In each case, time is taken to challenge students on their ability to make links to related topics such as the arterioles involved in the redistribution of blood and the high specific latent heat of vaporisation of water.

This fully-resourced lesson describes how mutations, the events of meiosis and random fertilisation result in genetic variation. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been primarily designed to cover points 8.1 (i) & (ii) of the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification but also includes activities to challenge the students on previous concepts in topics 1 and 2. The students begin the lesson by having to identify phenotype and species from their respective definitions so that a discussion can be encouraged where they will recognise that phenotypic variation within a species is due to both genetic and environmental factors although this lesson only focuses on the genetic aspect. A range of activities, which include exam-style questions and quick quiz rounds, are used to challenge the students on their knowledge and understanding of substitution mutations, deletions, insertions, the genetic code, crossing over and independent assortment. Moving forwards, the concept of multiple alleles is introduced and students will learn how the presence of more than 2 alleles at a locus increases the number of phenotypic variants. The final section of the lesson focuses on the production of haploid gametes by meiosis and discusses how the random fertilisation of these gametes during sexual reproduction further increases variation.

This is a concise lesson that looks at Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, the changes and tweaks that he made and compares it against the modern day version of the table. The aim of the lesson is to show students how accurate Mendeleev was with his table, even with those elements that had not yet been discovered. They will work through some examples with eka-silicon and eka-manganese and also compare eka-aluminium’s predictions against those of gallium. Links are made to the development of the atom so students can understand how the atomic number was used by Mendeleev and how it is used now. Students are set homework to look at the developments that were made by other scientists as homework and this is not covered in this lesson.

A concise lesson presentation (22 slides) and question worksheet, which together focus on the challenge of applying the equations of motion to calculation questions. Students are given this equation on the data sheet in the exam - therefore, this lesson shows them how they will be expected to rearrange in it four ways. For this reason, the start of the lesson revisits the skills involved in rearranging the formula, beginning with simple tasks and building up to those that involve indices as are found in this equation. Once students have practised these skills, they are challenged to answer 4 questions, although 1 is done together with the class to visualise how to set out the working. This lesson has been designed for GCSE students

This is a fully-resourced revision lesson that uses a combination of exam questions, understanding checks, quick tasks and quiz competitions to help the students to assess their understanding of the sub-topics found within Topic C6 (Groups in the Periodic table) of the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification. The sub-topics and specification points that are tested within the lesson include: Describe the reactions of lithium, sodium and potassium with water Describe the pattern of reactivity in the alkali metals and explain this pattern in terms of electronic configurations Describe the reactions of the halogens to form metal halides Explain the reactivity of the halogens in terms of electronic configurations Explain why the noble gases are chemically inert Students will be engaged through the numerous quiz rounds whilst crucially being able to recognise those areas which require their further attention during general revision or during the lead up to the actual GCSE terminal exams

This lesson has been designed to cover the content set out in specification point 5.3.1 (Human endocrine system) of topic 5 of the AQA GCSE Biology & Combined Science courses. A wide range of activities have been written into the lesson with the aim of engaging and motivating the students whilst ensuring that the content is covered in detail. These activities include a number of quiz competitions which will challenge the students to identify an endocrine organ when presented with three organs as well as introducing them to the names of some of the hormones released by the pituitary gland. The following content is covered in this lesson: Hormones as chemicals which have a slow but long lasting effect on target organs The location of the pituitary, adrenal and thyroid glands in the human body The location of the pancreas, ovaries and testes in the human body The hormones which are secreted by the endocrine glands The effects of the hormones on their target organs This lesson has been written for GCSE-aged students who are studying on the AQA courses but is suitable for younger students who are looking at the different organ systems

This fully-resourced lesson looks at the detailed structure of a muscle fibre, and focuses on the proteins, bands and zones that are found in the myofibril. The engaging PowerPoint and acccompanying resource have been designed to cover point 7.10 (i) of the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A (Salters Nuffield) specification. The lesson begins with an imaginary question from the quiz show POINTLESS, where students have to recognise a range of fields of study. This will reveal myology as the study of muscles so that key terms like myofibril, myofilament and myosin can be introduced. Students should have met these terms as well as actin when learning about the sliding filament theory in topic 7.2, so this acts as a recall. Moving forwards, students will be shown the striated appearance of this muscle so they can recognise that some areas appear dark where both myofilaments are found and others as light as they only contain actin or myosin. A quiz competition is used to introduce the A band, I band and H zone and students then have to use the information given to label a diagram of the myofibril. The final task challenges the students to use their knowledge of the sliding filament theory to recognise which of these bands or zones narrow or stay the same length when muscle is contracted.

This fully-resourced lesson describes the key steps in the process of DNA replication, including the role of DNA polymerase. Both the detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover point 2.11 (i) of the Pearson Edexcel A-level Biology A specification and this lesson also explains why this replication is known as semi-conservative in order to prepare the students for the following lesson on Meselson and Stahl’s experiment. The main focus of this lesson is the role of DNA polymerase in the formation of the growing nucleotide strands but the students will also learn that the hydrogen bonds between nucleotide bases are broken by DNA helicase and that DNA ligase joins the nucleic acid fragments. Time is taken to explain key details, such as the assembly of strands in the 5’-to-3’ direction, so that the continuous manner in which the leading strand is synthesised can be compared against that of the lagging strand. The students are constantly challenged to make links to previous topics such as DNA structure and hydrolysis reactions through a range of exam questions and answers are displayed so that any misconceptions are quickly addressed. The main task of the lesson asks the students to use the information provided in the lesson to order the sequence of events in DNA replication before discussing how the presence of a conserved strand and a newly built strand in each new DNA molecule shows that it is semi-conservative.

This lesson describes the structure of an amino acid and the formation and breakage of a peptide bond. The PowerPoint has been designed to cover specification point 2.3 (a) of the CIE International A-level Biology course and provides a clear introduction to the following lesson on the formation of dipeptides and polypeptides. The lesson begins with a prior knowledge check, where the students have to use the 1st letters of 4 answers to uncover a key term. This 4-letter key term is gene and the lesson begins with this word because it is important for students to understand that these sequences of bases on DNA determine the specific sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide. Moving forwards, students are given discussion time to work out that there are 64 different DNA triplets and will learn that these encode for the 20 amino acids that are common to all organisms. The main task of the lesson is an observational one, where students are given time to study the displayed formula of 4 amino acids. They are not allowed to draw anything during this time but will be challenged with 3 multiple choice questions at the end. This task has been designed to allow the students to visualise how the 20 amino acids share common features in an amine and an acid group. A quick quiz round introduces the R group and time is taken to explain how the structure of this side chain is the only structural difference. Students will be introduced to the existence of hydrophobic and hydrophilic R groups so that they are able to apply this knowledge in future lessons where structure and shape is considered. Some time is also given to look at cysteine in greater detail due to the presence of sulfur atoms and once again a link is made to disulfide bridges for upcoming lessons. Another quiz round called LINK TO THE FUTURE will allow the students to recognise the roles performed by amino acids in the later part of the course such as translation and in the formation of dipeptides. The lesson concludes with a task that describes the breakage of the peptide bonds during hydrolysis reactions.

This lesson describes how the relationship between the different properties of water and its roles in living organisms. The engaging PowerPoint has been designed to cover specification point 2.3 (d) of the CIE International A-level Biology course. Hydrolysis reactions have been a recurring theme throughout topic 2, so the start of this lesson challenges the students to recognise the definition when only a single word is shown: water. Students will also recall the meaning of a condensation reaction. Moving forwards, the rest of the lesson focuses on the relationship between the structure and properties of water, beginning with its role as an important solvent. The lesson has been specifically written to make links to future topics and this is exemplified by the transport of water along the xylem in plants which is covered in topic 7. The next section focuses on the high latent heat of vaporisation and heat capacity of water and these properties are put into biological context using thermoregulation and the maintenance of a stable environment for aquatic animals. The lesson finishes with an explanation of the polar nature of water, a particularly important property that needs to be well understood for a number of upcoming topics, such as cell membranes.

This lesson has been written to cover the detail of specification point 15.1 (f) of the CIE International A-level Biology specification which states that students should be able to explain the importance of myelination. A wide range of activities have been written into this resource to maintain the motivation of the students whilst ensuring that the detail is covered in depth. Interspersed with the activities are understanding checks and prior knowledge checks to allow the students to not only assess their understanding of the current topic but also challenge themselves to make links to earlier topics such as the movement of ions across membranes and biological molecules. Time at the end of the lesson is also given to future knowledge such as the involvement of autonomic motor neurones in the stimulation of involuntary muscles. Over the course of the lesson, students consider the structure of the myelin sheath and specifically how the insulation is not complete all the way along which leaves gaps known as the nodes of Ranvier which allow the entry and exit of ions. Saltatory conduction is poorly explained by a lot of students so time is taken to look at the way that the action potential jumps between the nodes and this is explained further by reference to local currents. The rest of the lesson focuses on the other two factors which are axon diameter and temperature and students are challenged to discover these two by focusing on the vampire squid. This lesson has been designed for students studying the CIE International A-level Biology course and the other part of this specification point which covers the refractory period was explained in the previous lesson on the transmission of the action potential

This detailed lesson looks at the structure and function of the motor neurones that form the autonomic nervous system and is responsible for automatic responses. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resource have both been designed to cover the second part of point 5.1.5 (g) of the OCR A-level Biology A specification which states that students should be able to demonstrate and apply their knowledge and understanding of the functional organisation of the motor system into somatic and autonomic systems. Students will discover that this system is further divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic systems to control different aspects of a particular involuntary response. The lesson begins with a focus on the types of effectors that will be connected to the CNS by autonomic motor neurones. Students will learn that effectors which are not under voluntary control such as cardiac muscle, smooth muscle and glands will be innervated by these neurones. Moving forwards, a quick quiz competition is used to introduced ganglia as a structure which connects the two or more neurones involved in the cell signalling between the CNS and the effector. This leads into the discovery of the two divisions and students will begin to recognise the differences between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems based on function but also structure. The remainder of the lesson looks at the differing effects of these two systems. This lesson has been written to tie in with the lesson on the organisation of the mammalian nervous system which covers the first part of specification point 5.1.5 (g)

This detailed lesson describes the specific stages of the aerobic energy system and has been designed for the OCR A-level PE course. In line with the specification content in “Energy systems and ATP resynthesis”, the lesson describes the type of reaction, the sites of the specific stages within the system, the fuel used, the controlling enzymes, the ATP yield and the bi-products. The lesson begins by introducing the aerobic system as the system that becomes the dominant energy provider after the ATP-PC and glycolytic system. Students are challenged to recognise that this system supports lower intensity exercise but that it will support exercise for a much longer duration than the others, suggesting that it produces a high yield of ATP. The main part of the lesson looks at how this high yield of ATP is produced during glycolysis, the Krebs cycle and the electron transport chain and students will learn the location of each of these stages in the cell. Questions, discussion points and quiz competitions are included throughout the lesson and act as understanding checks to ensure that any misconceptions are addressed immediately. The final tasks of the lesson are a series of multiple choice questions and a quiz round called “UNLOCK THE AEROBIC SYSTEM SAFE” where the teams of students compete to recall the quantitative values associated with this topic.

This resource contains a concise, engaging PowerPoint and accompanying worksheets which together cover the content of specification point 7.3 (Thyroxine and the control of metabolic rate as an example of negative feedback) as found on the Edexcel GCSE Biology & Combined Science higher tier specifications. Over the course of the lesson, students will learn about the effects of the release of thyroxine, how this release is regulated by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus and also will understand how this control is an example of negative feedback. Due to the obvious connection to the previously learned endocrine system topic, regular opportunities are taken to check on this prior knowledge and these work well with the understanding checks which allow the students to assess their progress. A quiz competition called FROM NUMBERS 2 LETTERS is used to introduce the key abbreviations in a fun and memorable way, whilst the key details of the content is always at the forefront of the design of the lesson. This lesson has been written for students studying the higher tier of the Edexcel GCSE Biology or Combined Science courses but it is also suitable for use with A-level students who need to recall the key details of these two hormones

This fully-resourced lesson describes the ultrastructure of a prokaryotic cell including the nucleoid, plasmid, 70S ribosomes and cell wall. The engaging PowerPoint and accompanying resources have been designed to cover specification point 2.1 (iii) of the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification but has been specifically designed to be taught after the lesson on the ultrastructure of eukaryotic cells, specification point 2.1 (v), so that comparisons can be drawn. A clear understanding of terminology is important for A-level Biology so this lesson begins with a challenge, where the students have to come up with a 3-letter prefix that they believe will translate as before or in front of . This leads into the discovery of the meaning of prokaryote as before nucleus which acts to remind students that these types of cell lack this cell structure. Links to the previous lessons on the eukaryotic cells are made throughout the lesson and at this particular point, the students are asked to work out why the DNA would be described as naked and to state where it will be found in the cell. Moving forwards, the students will discover that these cells also lack membrane bound organelles and a quick quiz competition challenges them to identify the specific structure that is absent from just a single word. In addition to the naked DNA, students will learn that there are also ribosomes in the cytoplasm and will discover that these are smaller than those found in the cytoplasm of an eukaryotic cell (but the same size as those in chloroplasts and mitochondria). The remainder of the lesson focuses on the composition of the cell wall, the additional features of prokaryotic cells such as plasmids and there is also the introduction of binary fission as the mechanism by which these organisms reproduce so that students can recognise that prokaryotic cells do not contain centrioles

This fully-resourced lesson describes the effects of enzyme and substrate concentration on the rate of enzyme-catalysed reactions. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources are the third in a series of 4 lessons which cover the details of point 3.2 (a) of the CIE A-level Biology specification. The first part of the lesson describes how an increase in substrate concentration will affect the rate of reaction when a fixed concentration of enzyme is used. Time is taken to introduce limiting factors and students will be challenged to identify substrate concentration as the limiting factor before the maximum rate is attained and then they are given discussion time to identify the possible factors after this point. A series of exam-style questions are used throughout the lesson and the mark schemes are displayed to allow the students to assess their understanding and for any misconceptions to be immediately addressed. Moving forwards, the students have to use their knowledge of substrate concentration to construct a graph to represent the relationship between enzyme concentration and rate of reaction and they have to explain the different sections of the graph and identify the limiting factors. The final section of the lesson describes how the availability of enzymes is controlled in living organisms. Students will come to recognise that this availability is the result of enzyme synthesis and enzyme degradation and a series of tasks will introduce the details of transcription and translation and therefore prepare them for the lessons in topic 6. Please note that this lesson explains the Biology behind the effect of concentration on enzyme-catalysed reactions and not the methodology involved in carrying out such an investigation as this is covered in a core practical lesson.

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 5.2 in unit 4 of the Edexcel International A-level Biology specification and also describes how the ATP that is made in the light-dependent stage of photosynthesis, 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 lesson describes an ion as an atom with a positive or negative charge, and explains how cations and anions are formed in ionic compounds. The lesson PowerPoint and accompanying worksheet have been designed to cover points 1.22 - 1.24 of the Edexcel GCSE Chemistry specification and also covers the same points on the Combined Science course. The first part of the lesson focuses on atoms and specifically on getting students to recall that they contain the same number of protons and electrons and this is why they have no overall charge. By ensuring that they are confident with this fact, they will be able to understand why ions have a charge. Students will learn that ions have full outer shells of electrons and this change in the number of this sub-atomic particle leads to the charge. They are shown examples with aluminium and oxide ions and then are challenged to apply this new-found knowledge to a task where they have to explain how group 1, 2, 5 and 7 atoms become ions. The final part of the lesson looks at how ion knowledge can be assessed in a question as they have to recognise the electron configuration of one and describe how many sub-atomic particles are found in different examples. There are regular progress checks throughout the lesson to allow the students to check on their understanding. This lesson has been written for GCSE students but could be used with higher ability KS3 students who are looking to extend their knowledge past basic atomic structure

This lesson describes the effects of pH on the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction. The PowerPoint and accompanying resources are part of the second lesson in a series of 4 lessons which have been designed to cover the content of point 3.2 (a) of the CIE A-level Biology specification. The lesson begins with a short discussion, where the students are challenged to identify how the stomach and the small intestine differ in terms of a particular condition and to explain why the conditions in these neighbouring digestive organs are so important. This introduces pepsin and trypsin and these protease enzymes play a key role throughout the lesson as they are good examples of how different extracellular enzymes have different optimum pH values (which are not necessarily 7.0). Moving forwards, students will discuss how the rate of an enzyme-controlled reaction will change if there are small or large changes in pH, and then time is taken to ensure that students can explain these changes with reference to tertiary structure bonds and the shape of the active site. Through the use of a quick quiz competition, the students will be reminded of the key term “buffer” and a series of questions are used to challenge their understanding of how these substances could be used in a practical investigation. They will also learn how buffers are found in blood plasma as well as in red blood cells in the form of haemoglobin. As there is a considerable proportion of marks for Maths in a Biology context questions in the A-level assessments, the remainder of the lesson challenges the students to use a given formula to calculate the pH of blood when given the hydrogen ion concentration and to calculate percentage decrease. These questions have been differentiated to give assistance to those that need the support

This lesson describes the structure of messenger and transfer RNA and compares this against the structure of DNA. The engaging and detailed PowerPoint and accompanying resource have been designed to cover points 1.4 (iv) and (v) as detailed in the Edexcel A-level Biology B specification which states that students should be able to describe the structure of the two forms of this nucleic acid. Students were introduced to the detailed structure of a nucleotide and DNA in the first lesson of topic 1.4, so this lesson is written to tie in with those and continuously challenge prior knowledge as well as the understanding of the current topic. The lesson begins with the introduction of RNA as a member of the family of nucleic acids and this enables students to recognise that this polynuclotide shares a number of structural features that were previously seen in DNA. A quiz round called “A FAMILY AFFAIR” is used to challenge their knowledge of DNA to recognise those features that are also found on RNA such as the chain of linked nucleotides, pentose sugars, nitrogenous bases and phosphodiester bonds. The next task pushes them to consider features that have not been mentioned and therefore are differences as they answer a structured exam-style question on how RNA differs from DNA. Students will learn that RNA is shorter than DNA and this leads into the final part of the lesson where mRNA and tRNA are introduced and again they are challenged to use the new information explain the difference in size. Brief details of transcription and then translation are provided so that students are prepared for the upcoming lessons on protein synthesis