IGCSE Biology: Plant reproduction resources

Hi again.

I tried a little experiment and designed a module that students worked through an interactive PowerPoint presentation and filled in a booklet of worksheets. The presentation was made available via the VLE initially and set up as a PowerPoint Show and set in kiosk mode so that they could only work through it in sequence.

The students were all quite excited by this approach and were keen to get started. Unfortunately our internet connection at school had problems and was quite slow, and as the presentation is quite a big one, it took ages to download. In the end they just saved the actual PowerPoint presentation to their memory sticks and launched it from there. The module took at least a week of lessons and some homework. I also ran through a simpler “teacher version” in review lessons as well.

I am not totally sure how well this module went. There were a few technical difficulties which took the shine off it a little. For example the hyperlinks worked fine on my computer but mysteriously chose not to work on other computers. Equally not all computers prompted to activate the macros automatically so I had to give instructions how to do this (see below for the instruction I placed on the VLE for the students). For some reason the brighter kids seemed more disparaging than those less academically able (and I though it would be the other way round). One student, who is lovely and has ADHD (but has it under control) really liked the module and he seemed much happier learning this way at his own speed and being able to review things at will.

I am still not entirely sure of the efficacy of this mode of delivery (and I had to resist the temptation to then teach it again more formally) and of course I did intermingle the lessons with short practical activities eg. dissecting a bean seed (’cos we know how to really rock it in Biology!!). One little error is that I forgot to add the nectary to the flower diagrams (I will get round to redoing it eventually) but the kids loved spotting the mistake so that wasn’t a total disaster.

The PowerPoint presentation for students has information slides, multiple choice questions (which have macros to show the answers and are formative), some audio links for additional explanation and links to short video clips. The clips do need to checking before each session as they can disappear from time to time.There is also a “Homepage” that hyperlinks to sections throughout the presentation and the clickbiology icon links on each page links back to this homepage.

I have added the student self-study presentation and the worksheet below. The teachers presentation is also added. If you try it out, let me know what you think.

Here are the instruction I gave to the students:

Plant reproduction

Click on the PowerPoint show. It should ask you to enable macros, if so click yes. If it does not prompt you to enable macros then download the PowerPoint presentation, once it is loaded click on Tools then Macro, next click on Security. Click on the medium setting, the presentation, close it down, re-open it and it should then prompt you to enable Macros. If this does not work then repeat the steps but click on the save low security setting.

NOTE: These are over 7mb so will take some time, it may speed things up in future if you save the presentation to a memory stick rather than downloading each time

Work through each section of the presentation. Ensure that you read each slide carefully, watch any video or listen to audio explanations and do the written activities in your booklets.

Links to the presentation resources are here:

student self-study presentation:

plant-reproduction

Worksheets:

plant_reproduction

teacher presentation:

plant-reproduction-teacher

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IGCSE, GCSE Biology cell structure and function quiz

Here are two versions of a PowerPoint quiz I have prepared covering cell structure for IGCSE/GCSE level. The quizzes cover structure of a typical animal and plant cell plus functions of the organelles.

The first quiz is entirely multiple choice with the answers revealed in a duplicate set of slides after the 15 questions. This allows for the entire test to be completed and then the answers covered later, (possibly as a self-mark exercise). Natrually the slides can easily be reordered to convert the presentation to a teaching presentation by revealing the answer after each individual question. There is a student answer sheet so that the quiz can be displayed on the board and the student answer in class.

The second version has the first 6 questions (labelling the cell) as short answer questions. Naturally this makes the test slightly harder plus checks for spelling. I always say that spelling DOES matter and instruct the students that incorrect spelling, even if phonetically correct, do not get marks. This encourages students to learn the words properly. Again the answers are added at the end in duplicated, animated slides and a student answer sheet is provided.

It is interesting that, as I developed these presentations, I realised the many different variations by which I could implement this simple quiz. I could remove all the multiple choice and make the entire test short answer. I could just do a paper quiz (obviously). I could also programme both presentations so that students completed the quiz entirely on the computer and have a results sheet printed out at the end to give to the teacher. I am also developing an online quiz for my students to complete via Moodle. I suppose it depends upon facilites available, whether you want to save paper, offer students variation on delivery, save on marking, whether the test is formative or summative etc. and of course dependent upon the abilities and preferences of your individual classes.

As I think this topic is slightly repititous of KS3 work I think using the quiz as a revision tool or completing it entirely via the computer means that KS4 students at least feel that they are advancing even if the content is the same. I do wish the exam boards would start to expand the cell structure taught at KS4 to include more ultra-structure stuff. For example I would include mitochondria, cytoskeleton and centrioles as the students do come across these when we mention respiration and cell division later on. In particular I hate the fried egg image of the animal cell and I always show the inner life of the cell video to the students so they at least have an appreciation of how amazing and complicated the cell really is.

Oops..another rant! Sorry!

Anyway…the resources are below:

Multiple choice quiz:

PowerPoint presentation:

cell-structure-and-function-multiple-choice-quiz-questions-and-answers

Student answer sheet:

cell-structure-and-function-quiz-multiple-choice-answer-sheet

Short answer and multiple choice version:

PowerPoint presentation:

cell-structure-and-function-quiz-questions-and-answers

Student answer sheet:

cell-structure-and-function-quiz-answer-sheet

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A2 Edexcel Coursework: Student guidelines and markscheme

When I set the coursework for my students I always review the markscheme carefully. I used to print it off and hand it to them but I suspect they never really read them through. Hence I have done a shorter version (2 pages) that simply recaps the main requirements and the higher range marking guidelines. In addition there is a brief PowerPoint presentation reviewing the markscheme. All of these are deliberately short as I do want to keep the students focussed and not overload them with too much information.

worksheets:

a2-biology-individual-investigation-summary

Teacher presentation:

coursework-assessment

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IGCSE Biology: Food chains, webs and pyramids worksheets

Worksheets designed to encourage students to work through pages 234 - 243 of the Biology for IGCSE (Mary Jones second edition). These are easily adaptable to be used with any textbook and are written in Word. I use them as holiday or cover work.

Worksheets:

organisms-in-their-environment-1

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Monohybrid Inheritance game: know your genetic jargon and ratios

Suitable for both IGCSE and AS level Biology.

Play this game on the What2Learn site

what2learn_printable_worksheet_12505

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