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- Precise: A measurement with very little spread about the mean value. One with a
lot of decimal places.
- Reliable: The results can be repeated. The reliability of data within a single
investigation can be improved by carrying out repeat measurements.
· When drawing a table to record data, be sure to include the original observed
measurements that would be recorded during the experiments. You might include
additional columns for calculated values such as a difference or percentage change.
· Hypotheses and statistical tests make use of specific and precise scientific
language. Use the correct terminology of significant difference (T test – when testing
two different discrete data sets) or significant correlation (Spearman’s Rank
correlation test – when testing for correlation between two variables) to formulate a
good null hypothesis.
· Make sure that you directly answer the question. If you are describing changes
from the usual course of events, be specific about the changes and describe their
nature by using terms such as more / fewer / greater / slower.
· When describing a method the phrase 'record the results' is very vague and
should be avoided. Specify exactly what should be recorded: for example, in the case
of habituation, record the time taken for the snail to fully re-emerge from its shell.
- X factor has not been taken into consideration e.g. health, age, gender, mass…
- When measuring the colour of the solution make sure to use a suitable
reference cuvette / solution
UNIT 1
· Why Daphnia?
- Daphnia are small and show the results of the experiment quickly
- They have simple nervous systems so are less likely to feel pain
- Temperature
- Volume of solution
- Time of acclimatisation
- Counting time
· Method:
- Immobilize the Daphnia using a little cotton wool in a cavity slide and observe
under microscope
Increasing caffeine concentration causes the electrical activity of the sinoatrial node
to increase, making it depolarize. As it depolarizes, the right and left atria contract
and the impulse travels to the atrioventricular node where, after a delay of about 0.13
seconds, the impulse continues to travel towards the ventricles. This delay ensures
that the atria have finished contracting and ventricles are full. The signal then reaches
the Purkyne fibres that conduct the impulses to the apex of the ventricles where
contraction begins and travels upwards towards the atria.
Caffeine also affects the ventricles, leading to an increase in the rate of contraction
and relaxation of each heart beat. This means that, as well as beating faster, the
heart's individual beats are associated with an increased cardiac output.
· Variables to be controlled:
- Temperature
· Method:
- Fill a plastic syringe with juice and add drops to the DCPIP until the blue of the
DCPIP is lost. Record the volume of juice added
· Limitations:
- End point difficult to judge as needs to be just when blue colour disappears
especially in highly coloured juices
· Factors that affect the permeability of the beetroot cell membrane are:
- Temperature
- Age
- Storage
- Duration
- pH
- Bile salts
· Variables to be controlled are:
- pH
· Method:
- Using a cork borer and knife, cut 5 pieces of beetroot equal in mass and size
- Rinse the beetroot pieces with water and gently pat them dry with tissue before
using them as, when cutting, pigment is released from broken cells and must be
removed before starting or solutions will be darker than they should
- Place one piece into each of 5 tubes and add 5 1cm3 water to each one
- Place each tube into a water bath of different temperature (e.g. 15, 20, 25, 30,
35)
· Limitations:
- Volume of enzyme
- Volume of substrate
- Concentration of substrate
- pH
· Method:
- Take 5 test tubes. In 4, place increasing volumes of trypsin solution e.g. (1, 2, 3,
4 cm3 ) and make up the volume to 4 cm3 using distilled water. The other test tube
should be filled with 4 cm3 of water to act as a control.
- Add 5 of milk powder (casein solution) as substrate and start the stopwatch
- Measure the cloudiness of the solution over time using a colorimeter (every 30
secs for 10 minutes) against water as a reference / control
UNIT 2
5. Observing Mitosis
· Safety:
- Risk of injury to hands by sharp knife or mounted needle so wear thick gloves or
cut away from body
- Acid is corrosive so wear gloves to reduce risk of injury and safety glasses to
reduce risk of injury to eyes
- Stain may stain clothes and skin so wear gloves and lab coat
- Glass coverslip may break and cut your fingers so wear gloves to protect hands
· Method:
- Cut the last 0.5 cm off the end of actively growing garlic or onion root tips
- Treat with acid to soften tissue by breaking down the middle lamella so that the
cells will separate easily when squashed
- Add toluidine blue to stain the chromosomes, warming if needed to intensify the
stain
- Temperature
- Light Intensity
- Humidity
· Method:
- Use week-old mustard seedlings. Cut off the top 2cm (stem and leaves) and
suspend in agar in a test tube
- Leave for a week and look for new roots / leaves forming
- Cells at the bottom of the stem differentiate to become new roots which
demonstrates pluripotency
- The fibre could enter and injure the eye when it snaps so wear safety glasses to
protect eyes
- Place layers of cloth beneath the mass hanger to stop masses from falling onto
the foot and injuring it
· Variables to be controlled:
- Length of fibre
- Same age
- Temperature
- Humidity
· Method:
- Soak nettle plant stems in water for a week to soften the tissues and allow the
fibres to be easily extracted
- Select adequate fibre (taking into account all variables) and attach one end to a
clamp and stand then progressively hang masses on the other end
· Safety:
· Preliminary Work:
· Things affecting enzyme action are: protein type, volume of solution, stirring, pH,
temperature, surface area, protein concentration…
· Variables to be controlled:
- Concentration of solution
- Species of plant
- Light intensity
- Temperature
· Method:
- Dependent variable: E.g. mass of plant tissue, mass of fruit, length of shoot,
number / colour of leaves. Description of method of measuring change in dependent
variable
- Take six plants / seedlings and place each of them into a test tube with a
different concentration of solution (one with distilled water to act as a control)
- Cover each tube with foil to exclude light and prevent algae growth that could
affect concentration of mineral ions
- Repeat at each concentration / for each mineral ion 5 times and calculate mean
· Limitations:
- Difficult to control all variables affecting plant growth / protein digestion e.g.
seeds do not germinate at the same time, genetic differences between the plants… /
surface area of stain, protein concentration
- Limiting factor(s)
· Ethical Issues:
- Welfare of frogs e.g. frogs should be kept in suitable conditions / not be harmed
when collecting secretions
- Avoid skin contact with frogs e.g. wear gloves when handling them / wash hands
after handling them / wear eye protection
· Safety:
- Wipe working area with antiseptic solution / work close to a Bunsen Burner
which sets up convection currents of sterile air to prevent growth of unwanted
harmful bacteria / contamination
- Secure lids with cellotape but don’t seal completely in order to avoid pathogenic
anaerobic bacteria to grow
· Preliminary Work:
- Carry out experiments to determine the best parameters for another named
variable e.g. suitable timescale for measuring the inhibition of bacterial growth /
conditions for growth of the bacteria / type of bacteria / …
· Variables to be controlled:
- Disc size
- Temperature
· Method:
- Prepare, under sterile conditions, petri dishes with a thin layer of agar in them
- Once the agar is set, spread a drop of bacterial culture (E. Coli) over the surface
using a sterile glass spreader to form a lawn
- Prepare the extract by crushing material using a pestle and mortar with alcohol if
necessary
- Minimally lifting the lid, place on the centre of the agar and press lightly
- Secure lids with 2 pieces of cellotape but don’t seal completely in order to avoid
pathogenic anaerobic bacteria to grow
- Observe the plates and the zone of inhibition will be clear. Measure its diameter
to give an idea of relative antimicrobial strength / effectiveness against microbes
- Other components of secretions may affect bacterial growth masking the effect
of the antibiotics
- A variable may be acting as a limiting factor for bacterial growth (give example)
UNIT 4
· Safety:
· Ethical:
· Preliminary Work:
· Sampling Methods:
1. Set up grid using tape measure and use random numbers to generate points to
place at least 10 quadrats
3. Record data
- Light intensity
- Surrounding vegetation
- Slope
- Temperature
- Soil water
- Humidity
- O2 concentration
- pH
- Clear table which matches method description with headings and units
- Means calculated from repeat data
· Limitations:
- Difficult to control all variables (abiotic factors affecting the variables being
investigated)
- We assume that the species is evenly distributed throughout the area and that
the placing of the quadrats is entirely random
- Movement of organisms
· Preliminary Work:
- Check for other variables that need to be taken into account / controlled
- Light intensity
- O2 concentration
- Mineral Concentration
- Water
- Food
- Time
- pH
· Method:
· Limitations:
- Difficult to control all variables affecting tissue growth + example e.g. exposure
to bacteria
- Damage to plant tissue during preparation may affect growth
- Need for more than one type of plant growth regulator for effective growth
· Method:
- The mixture is the placed into a PCR machine where it undergoes the following
cycle
1. Sample is heated to 95 ºC à This separates the double helix into two strands
2. Mixture is cooled to 55 ºC à Allows the primers to bind to the start of the STRs
4. Cycle is repeated for about 25-30 times, which takes about 3 hours, to produce a
mixture of different-length fragments unique to the individual
· The properties of the enzyme relevant to its biological activity in the amplification
process:
· Collect and analyse samples from more than one individual of each species
because:
- There will be genetic variation between individuals of the same species, testing
more than one sample will control for these differences
4. Gel Electrophoresis
After using PCR, gel electrophoresis can be used to separate them according to their
size and an image of the fragments produced
· Method:
1. The sample mixture is mixed with a coloured dye and placed carefully into wells
at one end of agarose gel
2. The gel is immersed in a buffer solution in a tank and a potential difference is set
up across it
3. DNA is –vely charged so will move towards the +ve electrode at the other end of
the gel
4. Smaller fragments will move faster so mixture is separated out into a pattern of
bands
2. DNA can be transferred from the gel to a nylon membrane by Southern blotting,
which can be treated with a DNA probe. This binds to the bands and carries either a
fluorescent or radioactive marker. Radioactive ones can be seen using
autoradiography
3. Coloured DNA probes can be added to gels to see the bands directly
UNIT 5
6. Investigating Respiration
· Method:
- Allow time for them to acclimatise to their surroundings and then move the
drop of coloured liquid back to 0 on the scale using a syringe
- Start the stopwatch and note the position of the coloured liquid at regular
intervals of 5 minutes. Subtract the final value from the first to give the overall
distance moved.
- Use
volume of oxygen uptake = π r2l (l = distance moved by liquid in tube)
- Type/source of seeds
- Mass/number of seeds
- Age of seeds
- Ph
- No. of organisms
- Time
· Yeast will respire faster using glucose because glucose is the starting point for
glycolysis reactions in respiration;
it is the first molecule to be phosphorylated. /
Yeast will respire sucrose faster because it can be broken down into molecules of
glucose and fructose;
providing double the substrate for glycolysis / Yeast will
respire sucrose more slowly because sucrose needs to be hydrolysed to glucose and
fructose in order to be used in glycolysis. / Rate of uptake of sugars differs: larger
molecules may be taken up more slowly.
· Effects of:
· Method: This uses a spirometer. Adding air to the chamber makes the lid of the
chamber rise in the water, and removing air makes it fall. Movements of the chamber
are recorded using a kymograph (pen writing on a rotating drum). The volume of air
the person inhales and exhales can be calculated from the distance the lid moves.
- The apparatus can be calibrated so that the movement of the lid corresponds to
a given volume.
- A canister containing soda lime is inserted between the mouthpiece and the
floating chamber. This absorbs the CO2 that the subject exhales.
- Switch on the recording apparatus and at the end of an exhaled breath turn the
tap so that the mouthpiece is connected to the spirometer chamber. The trace will
move down as the person breathes in. After breathing normally the subject should
take as deep a breath as possible and then exhale as much air as possible before
returning to normal breathing.
- Repeats could be for same student at same time each day for a week or with 10
different students (same age, gender, health, etc.)
· Variables to be controlled:
- Temperature
- Standardise exercise
· Ethical issues:
· Safety:
- Snail secretions may irritate skin or cause allergies or carry microbes à hands should
be washed thoroughly before and after handling snails
- Temperature
- Background Noise
- Humidity
- Light Intensity
- Species
- Age
- Gender
· Method:
- Allow time until snail has fully emerged from shell and has acclimatised
- With a moistened cotton wool bud, firmly but carefully touch the snail between
the eye stalks, starting the stopwatch immediately
· Outcome: As the number of stimuli increase, the time taken for the snail to re-
emerge decreases.
· Limitations:
- Snails already handled before the experiment may not react in the same way