Having Taught for over 10 years OCR A Level Biology I have a huge amount of wisdom and knowledge that I have developed into my resources so please
Give feedback on what you think of them! :)
Having Taught for over 10 years OCR A Level Biology I have a huge amount of wisdom and knowledge that I have developed into my resources so please
Give feedback on what you think of them! :)
This lesson focuses on coronary heart disease and its components of diet that increase its risk:
Obesity
salt
Fats
Cholesterol make up of High dentisty Lipoproteins (HDLs) and Low density Lipoproteins (LDLs)
This Booklet on Smoking and Vaping teaches clearly the diseases linked and the effects they cause.
It goes into great detail starting with the Substances that are found in Cigarettes including Tar, Carbon monoxide and Nicotine.
The booklet then explain the effects of Tar on the gaseous exchange system.
Diseases that are explained in great detail are :
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease
Chronic Bronchitis
Emphysema
Lung cancer
Each disease is explained how Tar and smoking is the cause then further explaining Consequences, Symptoms and treatment.
The Booklet then explains the effect of Nicotine and Carbon monoxide passing into the blood and causing changes in circulation. leading to Cardiovascular Disease.
The three most significant Cardiovascular diseases are the explained
Atherosclerosis
Coronary heart disease
Stroke
The booklet then explains how Cardiovascular disease can be prevented the risk factors associated with it.
The last section educates on the new trend of vaporised Nicotine . Users inhale vapor through the mouth from a usually battery-operated electronic device (such as an electronic cigarette). This section explains all of the substances found in vapes and their effects on the body.
This is a Booklet resource with answers and allows students to understand functions of the Liver by filling in the Booklet and using the diagrams provided. This can be activity can be done independently or teacher led. It can last the whole lesson and would be ideal with looking at Liver tissue or modeling out the Ornithine cycle
This OCR A level Biology Resource on Gene therapy is a full lesson of learning the past, present and future of Gene therapy.
It covers :
The process of gene delivery and their main mechanisms
vectors for gene delivery and their advantages/disadvantages
Some key Trials that took place in the past their results and set backs
It covers the key difference between Somatic cell gene therapy and Germ line gene therapy and what their future challenges are.
The lesson covers the key stage 3 UK National curriculum on Classification.
The resource covers Classification based on groupings or branches.
It looks into the main Kingdoms of life including plants and animals
It compares invertabrates and vertabrates
It looks at the key characteristics of Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians and fish.
It ends with a fun game on pupils Knowledge of animals
Additionally there is some key points on how learning to learn at the end if there is time.
This full lesson Booklet is the perfect resource to inform and educate students in the most latest developments of Biology in the 21st century.
The Booklet begins introducing what the advancements in DNA sequencing have done and how they have produced a large amount of processed data and information and that this has resulted in the development of a brand new are n Biology called Bioinformatics.
The booklet then explains as a result of all the information gathered comparison studies have been used to look at the firstly the genome size of different organisms and the number of functional genes they possess.
The booklet then demonstrates an inter species comparison study looking at Beta haemoglobin and how a single mutation can lead to disease such as sickle cell anaemia and how Bioinformatics can compare all the different species data and find similarities are closely related to each other.
The resource then touches on more complex disease such as cancer and the BRCA gene.
The Booklet then explains how pharmaceutical companies are using Bioinformatics to focus on SNPs and using them to make new drugs.
This then follows on into the NHS current project the 100,000 genome project and how Bioinformatics will be used.
The booklet finishes on two exciting future developments using Bioinformatics synthetic Biology and Proteomics.
This full 10 page Booklet on
plant hormones
plant responses to herbivory
seed germination
Apical dominance
Abiotic responses to stress
Tropisms
Tropisms historical investigations
This A level Biology OCR booklet on the three types of muscles
It includes:
The structural and functional differences in :
Involuntary/smooth muscle
Cardiac muscle
Voluntary/Skeletal muscle
A full detailed summary table that helps with Revision
This detailed resources on food spoilage and microorganisms covers a wide range of issues including : why microorganisms spoil our food
preventing food spoilage covering:
preventing food spoilage at low temperatures e.g fridge, freezers and freeze dried food, the science behind how it stops microorganism growth.
Preventing food spoilage with low water potential solutions such as salting and with jams etc
Preventing food spoilage with solutions with low pH such as pickling
Preventing food spoilage with heat treatment ovens and pasteurised milk
Preventing food spoilage with Irradiation in canning and plastic wrapping
This resource covers the OCR syllabus on PLant transport- Translocation. Firstly it defines what translocation is and then further explains the key terms of source and sink regarding the translocation of sugars.
The booklet then further explains the key cells the make up the Phloem tissue, their components and functions.
It then goes on to explain the content of the sieve tubes and the reason why Sucrose is transported not glucose.
The resource then explains how translocation occurs using the mass flow hypothesis. It shows the key mechanism how Sucrose is loaded into the phloem using a co-transporter.
The booklet then shows with clearly labelled diagrams how sucrose is moved along the phloem. The finishing page focuses on the difficult 2021 Translocation question on how glucose produced in photosynthesis is translocated to parts of the plant where glucose is metabolised and stored.
Having learned about this in my Biochemistry degree. It has now been included in the OCR A level Biology A H420 Syllabus as a kind of introduction into cellular control.
Having taught this for several years I have had to make my own resource as there is very little material out on it that is relevant to A level students and the textbooks don’t explain the Biochemistry fully.
The resource is a Booklet gap fill with diagrams and the teacher telling them all about the various different mechanisms that control gene expression in organisms.
It covers
-Gene regulation-Transcriptional control : chromatin remodelling/Histone modification / Lac operon/cAMP-Post-Transcriptional control: RNA Processing /RNA editing-Translational control : protein kinases/inhibitory proteins/inititaion factors-Post-Translational control : phosphates/amino acid modification/folding proteins/cAMP modification
A level -Biology -Plant responses Topic -Lesson on Plant responses to Herbivory
This includes
An introduction to Herbivory what it is and the cost to the producer
The types of defences plant use including
Mechanical defences -spikes, hairs, barbs etc
Moving defences -specifically Mimosa Pudica
Chemical defence - Alkaloids with examples
Chemical defence - Phenols with examples
Chemical defence - Terpenoids with examples
Phenological defences - Volatile Organic compounds and Pheromones with examples
links to videos on the internet and a summary
This Resource will last for a 1 hour lesson and pupils will need to fill in the Booklet. The Booklet covers the key principles of Homeostasis and Communication that are learned at GCSE and it build on them to stretch and challenge pupils
This essential booklet covers the key aspects of organisation of the nervous system which includes:
The central nervous system
recap of a relay neurone
Diagrammatic section of a reflex arc
The Peripheral Nervous system
Somatic Nervous system
Autonomic Nervous system
How the nervous system is organised
The motor pathways for the autonomic and Somatic nervous systems
The sympathetic subsystems
The Parasympathetic subsystems
Consolidation questions
This is a A level Biology OCR Genetic Engineering Booklet that will last the whole lesson. It covers :
The basic process of Genetic Engineering
Methods how the gene is obtained
Restriction enzymes and their Recognition sites
Vectors used to get the genetic material into the desired cell
This Biotechnology booklet
Introduces some key terms regarding Biotechnology and the many different uses of microorganisms in Biotechnology.
The introduction of Primary and secondary metabolites and when they are produced in the microbial growth curve.
There are some deep level thinking questions to challenge learners.
The booklet then goes on to explain some key Biotechnological processes and the microbes involved covering :
The production of food, pharmaceutical drugs, commercial enzymes and Bioremediation.
The booklet then introduces industrial scale fermenters and the key factors that can affect microbial growth.
The booklet contains picture of a standard fermenter and a power point resource that pupils can use to label and learn the key parts.
The Booklet then briefly compares Batch and Continuous culture and the key differences between them.
The last page contains the key terms of aseptic technique, asepsis and Contaminants and the results of what happens if contaminants enter in the fermenter and why asepsis is key to pure culture.
Lastly the challenges faced when scaling up small scale fermenters to industrial scale.
This full interactive lesson booklet on DNA sequencing defines DNA sequencing then starts off explaining past techniques such as shot gun sequencing step by step and their associated problems.
The booklet then focuses on Fredrick Sangers technique of DNA sequencing and how he first cracked the process using radioactive dideoxy nucleotides. The technique goes into detail step by step.
The booklet then focuses on modern day sequencing and Next Gen sequencing. The booklet then focuses how flourescent dyes and high processing power computers have dramatically changed the rate at which DNA is sequenced. Lastly the uses of DNA sequencing have been covered
This resource has everything needed to teach and learn about the heart at OCR A level.
The booklet starts at the basic structure of the heart and the main structures of heart anatomy both internal and external.
The Structure is explained using a simple gap fill activity to allow students to learn and complete the first page of the booklet.
The next is labeling the external and internal structures to allow students to orientate themselves.
The next part of the booklet explains the key stages in the cardiac cycle using a simple gap fill and then goes on to explain the cardiac cycle graph with clear labels of what is happening the pressure changes in the atria and ventricles.
The next part of the booklet explains the initiation of the cardiac cycle how the cardiac cells are myogenic and how the natural pacemaker SAN node triggers a wave of excitation over the atria and how the AVN node triggers ventricular contraction.
The last part of the booklet explains ECG graphs and what each part does and how to recognise abnormal ECG traces.