A level Biology Year 1 1 Biological Molecules 2 Cells 3 Organisms exchange of substances with their environment 4 Genetic information, variation and relationships between organisms Year 2 5 Energy transfers in and between organisms 6 Organisms respond to changes in their internal and external environment. 7 Genetics, populations, evolution and ecosystems. 8 The control of gene expression

Assessment 3 Exams June 2018 Paper 1:- 2 hours , unit 1-4, including relevant practical skills 35% Paper 2: 2 hours, unit 5-8, including relevant practical skills 35% Paper 3: 2 hours, all content, including relevant practical skills 30% Practical assessment 12 required practicals which will be assessed in theory papers. A certificate of endorsement is awarded having completed the 12 required practicals . This is needed in order to study any science at university.

Course delivery Two subject specialist teachers. Practical activities will feature highly in the delivery of lessons, covering more than the required practicals. Practical work will be integrated in order to support the delivery of subject content. Students are expected to read around the topic under study. Recap on GCSE knowledge initially, to consolidate understanding and further reading .

Independent study Past exam questions. Practical write ups. Presentations. Flip learning. Wider and further reading

Advice from y12 Before choosing to study biology, make sure you are really interested in the subject as it is difficult and there is quite a lot of independent work. Make sure to organise your folder at the start of the year and make clear notes all the way through the year as it will really help when you begin revising for your exams. do work yourself at home, make summary or just read over the topic after (even before) the lesson Don't give up when you struggle with a topic- it's normal. Don't compare yourself/grades to other people in the class.

Advice from y12 Make sure you enjoy the subject Make sure you do the extra reading and you go to your teachers for help, make sure you feel like you fully understand the topic before moving on. When you write notes, learn them as well as just writing them Read ahead if you have the chance through the textbook. Do lots of exam style questions through the year, to get used to Biology mark schemes!

Advice from y12 Obviously the better you learn it the better you will do, but with biology it's literally single word answers sometimes so it is super important to learn the text book inside out, which is what makes BIO hard. Also when learning the content , learn the ideas first , then the exact wording of the questions. It seemed as though with BIO just learning the content is not enough it needs to be followed up with exam questions, which should be done for each individual topic. Overall, I think what most distinguishes GCSE bio from A-level is that with GCSE you could just work most of the stuff out with no extreme prior work , with A-level you have to do the work in addition to being a good biologist to do well.

The cell at GCSE

The cell at A level

Carbohydrates Carbohydrates contain the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen Familiar carbohydrates are sugar and starch Glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose and sucrose are sugars Glucose, galactose and fructose have the same formula, C6H12O6 Sucrose, lactose and maltose have the same formula, C12H22O11 Glucose and fructose occur in fruits, e.g. grapes. Sucrose is the familiar table sugar and comes from sugar beet or sugar cane. Maltose is produced by germinating barley and is the sugar used in brewing beer. Note that the names of most sugars end in ‘-ose’. Carbohydrates provide the main source of energy for respiration in living organisms, but they do have other functions

Glucose C6H12O6 C O C HO HO C H HO C H H C OH 5 of the carbon atoms may be arranged in a ring H C OH C H2OH A glucose molecule as a straight chain This molecule is often represented simply as a hexagon

Other carbohydrates 2 molecules of glucose can join together to form a molecule of maltose sucrose is formed when a molecule of glucose and a molecule of fructose combine Lactose is formed when glucose and galactose combine. maltose Starch, glycogen and cellulose are formed from hundreds of glucose molecules joined to form a long chain = polymer Glucose and fructose have the same formula but differ in the way the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are distributed. Maltose and sucrose, with the same formulae, differ in a similar way. Starch is represented by a single long chain of up to 1000 glucose units but, in fact, the main component of starch is a branched chain part of a starch Molecule, a polymer

Proteins Proteins are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules but with the addition of nitrogen Carbohydrates are made up of glucose units. Proteins are made up of units called amino acids. Proteins and carbohydrates are polymers. There are about 20 different amino acids. Examples are glycine (Gly), alanine (Ala), valine (Val) and cysteine (Cyst) Most proteins are very large molecules, made up of hundreds of amino acids. Enzymes are proteins which carry out specific reactions in cells. They are more fully explained in slides 10-28 The amino acids, Gly-Val-Val-Cyst-Ala-Gly-Ala-Val joined together would make a small protein Proteins make up the structure of cells; cytoplasm, nucleus cell membranes and enzymes

H R O N C C H H OH Amino acids R = rest of the molecule, each amino acid has a different R group. H R O N C C H H OH COOH carboxylic acid Amino acids are monomers NH2= amine group

Protein structure and shape 7 The way the amino acids join up, gives a protein molecule a particular shape, which is different for every protein Ser-Cyst-Val-Gly-Ser-Cyst Ala Val Val-Cyst-Ser-Ala-Ser-Cyst-Gly Val- Cyst-Ala-Ala-Ser-Gly This is a small, imaginary protein molecule showing how it acquires a shape A protein which loses its shape is said to be denatured. This change cannot be reversed. Egg white is a protein (albumen). When it is heated it is denatured and changes from a clear, runny liquid to a white solid. This cannot be reversed. If an enzyme is denatured it can no longer carry out its normal function. High temperatures or certain chemicals can cause the protein molecule to lose its shape and its properties.

Lipids They are made up from glycerol and fatty acids H H H O H C C C C H H H OH saturated H fatty acid C H OH glycerol H H C C O H OH unsaturated H

Lipids Lipids are fats and oils They are made up from glycerol and fatty acids Examples of fatty acids are stearic acid, oleic acid and palmitic acid C H H2 O glycerol stearic acid A simple lipid The fatty acids in a lipid may be all the same. In olive oil, for example, the fatty acid is oleic acid. Alternatively they may be different as shown in the slide. oleic acid palmitic acid fatty acids