A-level osmosis required practical notes, targeting courses including AQA 3.2.3 and required practicals 3 and 4 and OCR A 2.1.5. The notes include diagrams on how to plot a graph of the data and some exam technique practice on how to answer questions on getting valid data, and links to good videos. The notes are bullet point style and easy to read. This set of notes is particularly targeted towards revising the practical come exam time and doesn’t include a detailed practical methodology. NOTE: my apologies, the original uploaded version had some words missing explaining the effect of evaporation on water potential, this has now been corrected.

One-page reference giving a case study of how to answer questions on experiment design. Suitable for GCSE and A-level students. The case study is testing catalase-catalysed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at different temperatures. This set of notes is oriented towards exam technique and how to answer multi-mark questions on this kind of topic: the need to define and set up an independent variable, to measure a dependent variable, define some control variables, and maybe plot the data and mention some safety precautions. I specifically mention that you don’t need to give too many control variables-students often think they can get more marks listing dozens.

This two-page resource lists pathogens, transmission routes, disease effects, treatment methods and other facts for human diseases on the OCR A-level biology A course. The large number of disease case studies on the course is something students need a lot of help with. A blank worksheet version is also included for students to fill in themselves. To help students build up a common sense knowledge of the kind of issues surrounding these diseases that could be important in future and likely topics of exam questions, there’s a section on “other things to know” explaining issues like malaria potentially being spread by global warming, and multi-drug resistant TB. That should make this set of notes particularly useful for students aiming high and looking to study medicine, nursing and biosciences degrees in future or getting ready for interviews. I’ve mentioned recent developments since the specification was published that would be worth knowing for interviews. I’ve had positive feedback from students who found it interesting and felt that it gave them a sense of issues in modern medicine-one student studying history A-level said it helped put studying AIDS in history in context.

Two-page link-up-the-boxes worksheet and two-page written worksheet recapping definitions of community, habitat, ecosystem and biotic/abiotic factors, along with case study questions. For the AQA 9-1 biology GCSEs: based on collating past paper questions I’ve found the definitions of the terms are important for students to know, but suitable for other courses. The link-up-the-boxes worksheet is deliberately written to be very easy for students with low knowledge and confidence. The written worksheet covers biotic factors, quadrats, transects and competition, along with a calculation question and practice identifying types of habitat. Versions for colour and black and white printing and a mark scheme are included. Could also be suitable as a quick recap exercise for A-level students.

One page revision notes for AQA explaining the idea of error bars. I include model answers for a range of types of question and explanation of what p < 0.05 means. I list a couple of past paper questions which have good questions to practice from, all from the current specification. AQA want you to say that differences are significant if error bars don’t overlap, even though in reality it’s more complicated than that. I clearly explain this and say that this idea shouldn’t be used if students go on to degree-level statistics. Questions and mark schemes consulted in writing these notes included: significant difference: 74022 2020 2.4 differences that are not significant: 74012 2019 1.2 range error bars: 74023 2017 2.5 no error bars: 74022 2020 7.2 probability and chance: 74021 2019 4.4 Update, 2024: Following feedback from a student, added scale to clarify that the error bar shows mean ± SD. Clarified that the comments on probability/significance are when comparing means (so e.g. wouldn’t apply to the chi-squared test).

One-page set of notes on confocal microscopy targeting A-level biology (especially OCR A) with some selected images and a link to a recommended video. Although suitable for other courses, these notes were specifically targeted at OCR A-level biology A. The focus is on the images produced by confocal microscopy rather than on the details of how the mirror system works. Questions studied writing this pack (and recommended for exam technique) included: AS-level unit 2, question 1 from 2017 AS-level unit 2 specimen, question 6 (MCQ) A-level 2020 paper 1, question 2 (MCQ)

It’s a real difficulty for students that the AQA A-level biology textbook doesn’t include a diagram of an ELISA. So here’s notes on one page covering the ELISA stages, with a diagram of the specific type of ELISA on the AQA course (an indirect ELISA), and explaining how it links to other things students may know about like pregnancy tests and COVID lateral flow tests. There’s an explanation of what monoclonal antibodies are, explanation of artificial passive immunity as an extension, and links to some good videos. 9/3/2024 update: new version! Clearer numbering of the stages to link diagram to text, shortened URLs, brighter colours and better paragraphing. Also added a version tuned to print better in black and white.

A famous painting proves a jumping-off point for examining ecology and national heritage in this worksheet for students applying to study biology, environmental sciences and geography at university. There’s two formats: a worksheet for students to take home, but also if you want to replicate the format of a university interview with an interviewer posing questions, a sheet containing the painting to show the student as stimulus material and a set of questions and answers for the interviewer, with some possible extra hints if the student’s struggling. There’s questions about experiment design and statistical test to choose too. On a difficulty scale, I’d put this as about a three out of five: it’s an interesting case study with a nice, evocative stimulus material to get students thinking, but doesn’t really go beyond the A-level courses.

Flow diagram showing the menstrual cycle on one page. Suitable for AQA 9-1 GCSE, Edexcel 9-1 GCSE, Edexcel iGCSE and Cambridge iGCSE exam boards, among others. Clean modern design, easy to follow. Explains roles of follicle stimulating hormone, luteinising hormone, oestrogen and progesterone, the pituitary gland, ovaries and corpus luteum. I have a separate version for OCR Gateway GCSE science-that course has slightly different content.

Notes and diagrams on epigenetics for the AQA course, starting from some simple analogies to the real world. I also give the core definition AQA have asked for of epigenetics, which isn’t clearly stated in the textbook but came up on a specimen paper. There’s links to tons of YouTube videos explaining how epigenetics works, and a mnemonic for remembering euchromatin and heterochromatin. Length is two very well-filled pages: you could print it double-sided as a resource for students to keep. Could also be useful for students taking OCR as extension material.

This two-page resource lists pathogens, transmission routes, disease effects, treatment methods and other facts for the human diseases on the Cambridge International A-level biology course. The large number of disease case studies on the course is something students need a lot of help with. A blank worksheet version is also included for students to fill in themselves. To help students build up a common sense knowledge of the kind of issues surrounding these diseases that could be important in future and likely topics of exam questions, there’s a section on “other things to know” explaining issues like malaria potentially being spread by global warming. That should make this set of notes particularly useful for students aiming high and looking to study medicine, nursing and biosciences degrees in future or getting ready for interviews. Although flu is not one of the “official” case studies on the course, because it’s covered in the vaccination topic notes on it are also included. I’ve had positive feedback from students who found it interesting and felt that it gave them a sense of issues in modern medicine-one student studying history A-level said it really helped put studying AIDS in history in context.