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.
Like all the PowerPoints available on TES, this is designed to complement the class notes for this topic.
This includes introduction to and questions on mycorrhizae, the phosphorous cycle and finally the nitrogen cycle.
This takes approximately 2.5 - 3 hours to deliver (in total) as each stage of the nitrogen cycle is covered in considerable detail so they can then attempt to apply their new knowledge, which historically they find especially challenging in the examinations.
Included in this purchase is an A3 handout with cards for students to arrange so they get familiar with the nitrogen cycle. The instructions and answers for this activity are on the final slide in the presentation.
This has taken about 8-10 hours to produce and develop (and when used properly it works brilliantly) hence the price!
PowerPoint reviewing the basics of DNA, and what is a gene. Then goes on to the triplet code and introduces the terms, degenerate, non-overlapping and universal. It then goes on to consider how we understand it is a triplet code, and not a singlet or doublet code. It also requires students to use the codon table and gets them to think about using the complement of the DNA nucleotides (in mRNA) to determine the amino acid sequence. This also has a video embedded which answers the question - what percentage of the human genome are introns?
Where possible, there are links to previously taught year 1 material. The PPT contains notes with most of the answers to the questions on the PPT. This resource is designed to be used with the class notes for this topic.
PowerPoint detailing translation, with a card sort activity that students can use to learn the process, but also figure out the missing words. Also included is a student version you can upload to your VLE, which doesn't contain all the answers. There's a quick quiz to recap the structures of DNA, tRNA and mRNA and a recap on transcription and splicing. There's short animation to show translation, but this does include the presence of a release factor (which is not in the spec). Also, it contains information about amino acid activation, which you can of course remove if you would like. Where possible, there are links to previously taught year 1 material (i.e. drawing a labelled amino acid). The PPT contains notes with most of the answers to the questions on the PPT. This resource is designed to be used with the class notes for this topic.
For those sitting Paper 3, writing a synoptic essay, under timed exam conditions can be daunting! I have put this resource together over the past few years, but have recently updated it so it is inline with the recent guidelines about the essay and revised criteria for marking the essay. It provides the students with a bit of background, how the essay is (generally) marked and a few tips and tricks to try and help them consider how they can write a good essay. Although the price might seem initially a tad steep, it has taken hours and hours and hours to prepare, has been trialled, amended and can be spread over about 6-7 hours of teaching. Instructions below.
A few lessons after working through 'The Essay' PPT/handout, I use the session 1 resources, where students review two handwritten essays marked by senior examiners. Each essay has 10-12 electric tags (containing [very] small numbers) at various points that refer to a comment from a senior examiner, displayed on the PowerPoint. Students are tasked to match the examiners comments to the electric tags, and, using the tick grid in 'The Essay' handout, award the essays a mark.
In session 2 (which I usually do a week later), the students are given one of two handouts, which contain two essays that have been typed for ease of reading (the plans have been included), but also contain numbered tags that refer to a comment from a senior examiner. Every student reviews essay number 5 and then use the comments from the PowerPoint to match the examiners comments, and give the essay a mark using the marking guidelines (in 'The Essay' handout). However, the second essay is different (essay no. 1 or no. 8) and I tend to give out alternate essays to students sat next to one another. Students are then given a small slip of paper containing the first 7-9 examiners comments - the final 3-4 they have to attempt to determine what the comment might be about and use their intuition to then give the essay a mark. I then usually ask the students to talk about what was good about the essay and why they awarded it the mark they did. If you are not too pushed for time, this could obviously be taken further!
The other document, 'practice essay plans' contains a 15 essay titles and space for students to practice planning. I usually set these as starters, but in my experience I would strongly recommend the students complete the plans under timed conditions. While first attempting essay plans, I offer the option for students to use 'The Essay' handout, as this contains a list of all topic areas in the specification as some might not be able to recall topic areas relevant to the essay title. After a few (5-6) attempts at planning, I tend to remove this as an option and the students plan under timed exam conditions, with a particular focus on how they will consider the sequence of paragraphs, so there are links between paragraphs, and how they might focus the essay on the title.
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.
Short PowerPoint introducing dihybrid inheritance. The PPT contains notes with most of the answers to the questions on the PPT. This resource is designed to be used with the class notes for this topic (available separately on TES) and requires students to have access to both AQA endorsed text books (T&T and BIR).
Detailed PowerPoint containing a starter question before insertion, transformation and the identification of the desired gene/protein are outlined. Where possible, there are links to previously taught material. The PPT contains (a few) notes with questions and answers. This resource has taken a long time to perfect (hence the price) and is designed to be used with the class notes for this topic.
PowerPoint about the polymerase chain reaction. Includes a video showing the shedding of skin cells, an animation to show the molecular processes of PCR and then includes a few activities for students to complete. Where possible, there are links to previously taught material. The PPT contains (a few) notes with questions and answers. This resource is designed to be used with the class notes for this topic.
PowerPoint introducing the topic. Contains a starter question and a quick video, with one of my favourite quotes, before using the manufacture of synthetic insulin as an example to illustrate where this field of DNA technology originated. it outlines the different steps involved in the topic for the isolation, replication and identification of the desired gene/protein, and then introduces stick and blunt ends. Where possible, there are links to previously taught material. The PPT contains (a few) notes with most of the answers to the questions on the PPT. This resource is designed to be used with the class notes for this topic.
Complete set of PowerPoints, bespoke student class notes, any additional resources and marks schemes for (approximately) six 1.5 hour lessons covering Year 2 topic no. 20 Gene Expression.
These resources have taken several hours to develop and are offered here for a bargain, considering the amount of work that has gone into producing them.
In this bundle, the class notes, PowerPoints and all other resources are fully editable to suit your style of teaching. They make reference to, and may require students to access both the Toole & Toole and AQA A Level Biology Student Book 2 (Lowrie & Smith) for some independent study.
If upon purchasing these resources, you need any support, I'll do my utmost to help.
Complete set of PowerPoints, bespoke student class notes, any additional resources and marks schemes for (approximately) eight 1.5 hour lessons covering Year 2 topic no. 17 inherited changes.
These resources have taken several hours to develop and are offered here for a bargain, considering the amount of work that has gone into producing them.
In this bundle, the class notes, PowerPoints and all other resources are fully editable to suit your style of teaching. They make reference to, and may require students to access both the Toole & Toole and AQA A Level Biology Student Book 2 (Lowrie & Smith) for some independent study.
If upon purchasing these resources, you need any support, I'll do my utmost to help.
Complete set of pre-work, PowerPoints, bespoke student class notes, any additional resources and marks schemes for four 1.5 hour lessons covering Year 2 topic no. 19: Populations.
These resources have taken several hours to develop and are offered here for a bargain, considering the amount of work that has gone into producing them.
In this bundle, the class notes, PowerPoints and all other resources are fully editable to suit your style of teaching. They make reference to, and may require students to access both the Toole & Toole and AQA A Level Biology Student Book 2 (Lowrie & Smith) for some independent study.
The pre-work contains links to websites and also requires students to complete a topic glossary (in the folder dividers), which are also available on TES, along with accompanying images. It is important students complete the pre-work prior to the lessons because they are then tested on their understanding of the pre-work throughout the topic.
The topic overview sheet is for students to write up their notes after the topic has been taught and an exemplar topic overview has been included in this bundle.
If upon purchasing these resources, you need any support, I'll do my utmost to help.
Long (interactive) PowerPoint introducing this lesson - should be used with the class notes for the topic. Very lengthy, so obviously not all of it should be used in class!
This bundle contains pre-work, PowerPoints, bespoke class notes, additional resources and a marks scheme for the Year 2 Biology topic of Respiration (AQA).
The class notes, PowerPoints and all other resources are fully editable to suit your style of teaching. They make reference to, and may require students’ to access both the Toole & Toole and AQA A Level Biology Student Book 2 (Lowrie & Smith) for independent study.
The pre-work contains links to websites and videos, but also requires students’ to complete a topic glossary and label an image in the the folder dividers - a multi-purpose resource available on TES (not included in this bundle). The pre-work should be completed prior to the lessons because students’ are then tested on their understanding of the material in the pre-work as the topic is taught.
The PowerPoints and bespoke class notes are designed to maximise lesson time so students’ can quickly grasp factual content before moving on to the application of their knowledge through problem solving activities that demand processing of information (contained in the class notes). The PowerPoints are animated and contain as little text as possible, so the necessary factual information is more obvious to the learner. The PowerPoints provide ample opportunity to test the students’ recall and understanding of the pre-work.
The ‘Topic overview’ sheet is the relevant section of the specification, re-written as a check list. Students’ can write up their notes after the topic has been taught in a format they feel most comfortable with (i.e. flashcards, posters, A4 notes). I instruct my students’ to handwrite their topic overview, unless they have access arrangements in examinations. An exemplar student topic overview is included in the Biological molecule bundle.
If upon purchasing these resources, you need any support, I'll do my utmost to help.
Complete set of pre-work, PowerPoints, bespoke student class notes, any additional resources and marks schemes for four 1.5 hour lessons covering the AS / Year 1 Biology, topic 2: Nucleic acids.
In this bundle, the class notes, PowerPoints and all other resources are fully editable to suit your style of teaching. They make reference to, and may require students to access both the Toole & Toole and AQA A Level Biology Student Book 1 (Lowrie & Smith) for some independent study.
The pre-work contains links to websites, videos and some images in the folder dividers. The pre-work also requires students to complete a topic glossary (in the folder dividers), which are also available on TES, along with accompanying images. It is important students complete the pre-work prior to the lessons because they are then tested on their understanding of the pre-work throughout the topic.
The topic overview sheet is for students to write up their notes after the topic has been taught. An exemplar student topic overview will be included shortly. I task my students to assess at least one exemplar topic overview prior to them completing their first topic overview.
If upon purchasing these resources, you need any support, I'll do my utmost to help.
These materials have been trialed & refined last year and played a central role in enabling my classes (sizes of 20+) to achieve ALPS scores of 2.
PowerPoint with good application activity to help students' grasp DNA replication before moving on to the Meselsohn Stahl Experiment. This complements the class notes, which contains a challenging colouring in activity.
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.
This is a sample of the style of resources available for the whole of the AS & A-level (AQA) Biology courses, which will be soon be available (over the next few months).
The class notes help to maintain student focus as the class completes sections of the booklet during the topic, using the PowerPoint's. Some of the work in the class notes can be set for homework. In my experience, using a booklet helps enormously with student organisation as the resource is in one place, so it easier to file and more difficult to lose. It also helps in that less time is spent at the printer and you do not need to hand out bits of paper at the start of every lesson.
This might seem quite 'narrow', but it is a highly efficient approach to teaching A-level Biology. It also helps for when students are absent as they have the class notes and can complete most of them using the PowerPoints and text books. This approach to also ensures students' are provided a decent set of revision notes that contain the necessary information for examination success and helps to maximise lesson time, thereby allowing more time for activities that help develop the skills needed for students' to:
-- 'Apply knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, processes, techniques and procedures',
-- 'Analyse, interpret and evaluate scientific information, ideas and evidence'.
The PowerPoints are designed to complement the class notes, and contain animations and activities. It is NOT intended that the students simply copy down everything that is on the PowerPoint!
The full bundle of Biological Molecules contains pre-work, seven PowerPoints, two sets of class notes (fully editable), marking guidelines and a topic overview check sheet. In most of the bundles available, all of the above and more is included.
It is also worth viewing the 'Folder Dividers', as my students have found these particularly useful.
These materials have been carefully developed over the past 6 years and were trialed and refined last year when teaching the new specification for the first time - they played a central role in enabling my classes (sizes of 20+) to achieve ALPS scores of 2.
