A coral reef crowded with corals and fish

Year 9 Science · Lesson 14

Revision

Getting ready for the topic test

Coral reef, Palmyra Atoll. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pacific Region. CC BY 2.0

Lab manual p33

How the topic test works

Criterion A: Knowing and understanding. It covers the whole unit.

Strand i
Recall, state, outline and describe what you know.
Strand ii
Apply what you know to problems, including situations you haven't seen before.
Strand iii
Interpret data and information to make judgements, backed by science.

Each section starts easy and gets harder. Attempt every question: the hard ones are where the top levels are.

Lab manual p2 to p3

Check your progress

  1. Go back to the Know and Do checklist at the front of your lab manual.
  2. For every row, tick "I can do this!" or "I still need help…".
  3. Circle the two rows you are least sure about. Those are your revision for today and tonight.

Ask about anything you still need help with today. Not the night before the test.

Read the question

Command terms: what each one wants

TermWhat to do
StateGive a name, value or short answer. No explanation needed.
OutlineGive a brief account: the main points, in a sentence or two.
DescribeGive a detailed account of a process, step by step.
SuggestPropose a possible answer, and give a reason for it.
Use the dataQuote specific values from the graph or table, with units.

Quick-fire quiz · part 1

Write your answers, then check

  1. List the seven levels of classification. Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.
  2. Name the three domains of life. Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya.
  3. Name the three types of adaptation. Structural, behavioural, physiological.
  4. What is variation? The differences between individuals of the same species.
  5. Why is a bat a mammal, not a bird? It has fur and feeds its young milk.

Quick-fire quiz · part 2

Write your answers, then check

  1. List the five steps of natural selection. Variation, selection, reproduction, inheritance, time.
  2. Why did dark peppered moths become common? On sooty trees, birds ate more light moths, so dark ones survived to breed.
  3. How many chromosomes are in a human gamete? 23.
  4. What is a zygote? A fertilised egg, with DNA from both parents.
  5. What is a mutation? A mistake made when DNA is copied.

Be the marker

"Describe how the number of spots can be passed from a male guppy to his offspring."

Answer A
The babies get spots from their dad because they are related to him.
Answer B
The father passes on genes for spots in his sperm. The sperm fertilises an egg, so the baby gets genes from both parents.
Answer C
Spot number is coded for by genes on chromosomes. The male makes sperm, gametes with one copy of each chromosome, so one allele for spots. At fertilisation a sperm joins an egg to make a zygote with two copies of each chromosome, one from each parent. The zygote divides into the baby, which inherits the father's spot genes.

Rank them from weakest to strongest. Then: what would B need to add to become C?

How they'd be marked

From "states" to "describes"

To move up a level: use the key words, put the steps in order, and link them back to the trait in the question.

Practise with data

Beetles on a volcanic island

A volcano erupts and covers the island's pale sand in dark ash. Birds eat the beetles they can see. (Example data.)

15% 85% 90% 10% Before the eruption 20 generations later Light beetles Dark beetles

Practise with data

Questions

  1. Which colour was most common before the eruption? Light, 85%.
  2. Describe how the population changed. Use the data. Dark beetles rose from 15% to 90%; light beetles fell from 85% to 10%.
  3. Explain the change using natural selection. Beetles varied in colour. On dark ash, birds saw and ate more light beetles (selection). More dark beetles survived to reproduce, and their offspring inherited dark colour. Over 20 generations (time), dark beetles became common.
  4. A student says, "The beetles turned dark because they needed to hide." Do you agree? No: the dark beetles were already there. The ash didn't change any beetle; it changed which ones survived.

Lab manual p33

Revise your weakest section

Cornell notes

  • Left column: key questions or words.
  • Right column: your notes.
  • Bottom: a short summary in your own words.

Cover the right column and test yourself from the left.

Vocabulary

Practise with the class Quizlet flashcards:

quizlet.com/682753037/flashcards

And every lesson's slides are on the unit page.

Exit question

Your revision plan

The section I most need to revise is ______. Tonight I will ______.

Away today?

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