I've been teaching A-level biology for years and have spent several hours developing resources to the highest possible standard.
They are designed to maximise class time - spending less time on learning facts, with a focus on application and the processing of information.
I've been teaching A-level biology for years and have spent several hours developing resources to the highest possible standard.
They are designed to maximise class time - spending less time on learning facts, with a focus on application and the processing of information.
My students have suggested this has been one of the most useful resources to help with their organisation and stress levels. These folder dividers are printed (duplex) and given to our students. It is intended they are placed in the students' A4 ring-binder folder, and:
1) Help students arrange their class notes in discrete topic sections.
2) contain a topic glossary, which students complete prior to the lessons. It is recommend they use only the AQA endorsed text books, and in addition to the glossary at the back of the text book, they will need to search through some of the chapters to find some of the definitions.
3) contain an unlabelled image (relevant to the topic) and a passage of text with some key terms omitted, which students need to complete using the images (included in this purchase) and the passage of text using the AQA 2016 specification.
4) contain a revision check sheet with each strand of the specification for use during revision - this helps to ensure students are not missing out any strands of the specification in their revision and can help them approach their revision in a structured and methodical manner.
PowerPoint on electron microscopes. Contains a quiz for students to 'guess the electron micrograph' and includes a video of the Cordyceps fungi that invades the body of an insect to grow and diminish the insect population.
Student notes / work booklet to cover seven 1.5 hour lessons on topic 19: Populations (AQA), plus some independent study.
Marking guidelines for the questions interspersed throughout, and at the end of the booklet are also included.
The PowerPoints to accompany these notes can be purchased separately or as part of the bundle.
PowerPoint introducing this lesson - should be used with the class notes for the topic and I would advise that you do not purchase this, unless you are going to purchase the bundle for this topic.
PowerPoint introducing this lesson - should be used with the class notes for the topic and I would advise that you do not purchase this, unless you are going to purchase the bundle for this topic.
Topic overview check sheet for use when peer-marking student overview of this topic. Included is an example of an highly successful Biology student's topic overview!
I ask my students to practice marking this mock overview prior to them completing their first overview.
Please vie the resource titled 'AS / A-level Biology Moodle quiz - 1. Biological molecules (sample)' before downloading and attempting to use with your Moodle platform.
This contains detailed information about the quizzes and a sample, so you can check compatibility, quality, etc.
Upon downloading, you will need to amend the file extension from .doc to .mbz before restoring to your Moodle platform.
Please vie the resource titled 'AS / A-level Biology Moodle quiz - 1. Biological molecules (sample)' contains general information about the quizzes and a sample quiz, so you can check compatibility, quality, etc.
This quiz contains 49 questions and a maximum mark of 70. Some of the questions are from previous quizzes to help develop the 'big picture' of biology, but there are of course a number of new questions.
Upon downloading, you will need to amend the file extension from .doc to .mbz before restoring to your Moodle platform.
Please read the following carefully before downloading and attempting to use with your Moodle platform.
Over the past 6 years I have created and developed a number of online end-of-topic quizzes. They were set up on the advice of some outstanding students who wanted additional ways to test their performance as the year progresses. It's taken a huge amount of time and effort in setting them up, and developing them so they accommodate various correct responses to each answer. These can be used as summative assessments or for revision (I prefer the former) and are designed for use with the Moodle platform.
They contain a variety of questions that are (nearly) all based on past exam style questions. Although they are tailored towards the AQA specification, they could easily be adapted so they are more akin to any of the exam boards.
These widely regarded as 'helpful' by students to understand the topic content, exam terminology / question exposure, stress associated with timed assessment and how to model exam question answers - in addition, upon submitting the attempt, feedback is provided for almost every question. Because they are accessible online, students can access them out of the classroom, allowing more time for teaching. They have been particularly useful for both students' to identify weaknesses in subject knowledge, but also for the teachers as it is possible to quickly identify the questions students have not done so well on, and of course, those in the class who have not completed the quiz (you need to set up groups in order to do this easily).
Anecdotally, the first attempt at each quiz appears to be aligned with student progress on the course - i.e. if a student is achieving, on average, A grades on their first attempt on several quizzes, they are likely to achieve an A grade at AS.
There is an enforced 48 hour delay between the attempts so students' are not simply remembering the answers and students are expected to achieve a certain percentage before being able to access the next quiz (this can of course be changed if you feel this to be counterproductive). For students with additional time in examinations, you can simply create a duplicate quiz and amend the time allowed accordingly.
Available for download here is a free sample of the first quiz (containing only some of the questions) so you can check the compatibility, functionality and quality before committing to purchase.
Upon downloading, you will need to amend the file extension from .doc to .mbz before uploading to your Moodle platform, which you do through the 'restore' function in the administration menu.
Please vie the resource titled 'AS / A-level Biology Moodle quiz - 1. Biological molecules (sample)' contains general information about the quizzes and a sample quiz, so you can check compatibility, quality, etc.
This quiz contains 23 questions and a maximum mark of 39. Some of the questions are from the Biological Molecules quiz to help develop a little synopticity, but there are of course a number of new questions.
Upon downloading, you will need to amend the file extension from .doc to .mbz before restoring to your Moodle platform.
PowerPoint and activity introducing 'The principles of feedback mechanisms' and ' Control of the oestrous cycle'.
Students often find this especially challenging and it took me a while to come up with an effective lesson that helped students remember the interaction between the hormones involved in the control of the oestrous cycle. This resource takes about 2.5-3 hours to work through, but some of the activities can be done independently.
The PPT begins introducing positive and negative feedback, with a few examples of milk let down and birth.
Then, there is a card sort activity, which is supported with matching the cards with various sections on the graphs.
There's a few exam questions and an application activity about 'The oestrous cycle in pigs' near the end.
This resource also comes with a fully editable version of the accompanying student notes, which contains another application type activity and a selection of past examination (AQA) questions & marks scheme.
Class notes to accompany the PowerPoints available on TES for this topic. This will save you hours and hours and hours and hours of preparation! The booklet is 44 pages long and contains gap fill paragraphs, questions, images for students to label, (20 pages of) past exam questions and much more. Marking guidelines also included.
PowerPoint on water and its functions. Contains a few video clips, which help to illustrate some of the key ideas. Designed to complement the class notes on this topic.
Also included in this resource, is a new specification exam style question on water and marking guidelines.
PPT for lessons on cell organelles. This can be a bit of a dull lesson to deliver, as there's so much factual content to cover. So in here you'll find a variety of inventive methods to cover the structure and function of the organelles, a video clip to introduce the fateful encounter hypothesis, other video clips to help stimulate student interest, an application activity on protein synthesis and a few other bits n pieces that begin to draw on students' prior knowledge of year 1 biology.
It will probably take about 2 hours to deliver this material if the class is participating through the problem solving activities.