Biology ISA Help (GCSE)

Okay, well i'm doing triple award science.
And we have just began our ISA preparation (25%)

Our teacher really didn't explain anything. We were just told we had to come up with a hypothesis about one of the factors that affect photosynthesis in a plant, and we were given a notes page to fill asking the method/equipment/risks and so on.

Can anyone help me understand how the exam is going to be?
Like how many marks for the 1st paper?
How many marks for the second?
How many marks for actually performing the experiments and drawing tables/graphs?

Examples of ISA papers?
What questions will come up?

Thanks,
Appreciate all responses.

1) Exam is going to be like a normal exam you do but written like your B2/B3, C2/C3, P2/P3.

2) The second is generally 34 marks (this is the exam paper)

3) As far as I know the second is generally 6 marks, 4 being for graph and 2 for your table

- The paper is split into 2 sections.
Section 1 = this will question you on the experiment you did and you may have to answer some questions using your answers, they're pretty straight forward

Section 2 = they will have an experiment done (hypothetically, in the exam paper, you wont see the experiment being carried out) and you will have to answer questions using their results, again pretty straight forward

this will make up a total of 40 marks for the ISA.



Typical questions will be how science works questions

for example:

1) what were you trying to find out in your investigation
2) what were the dependant and independent variables in your investigation
3) suggest one way to make your experiment more precise
4) what did you find out from your investigation
5)what happened to the anomalous result in the calculation (if these is one in section 2!)

they are pretty basic and straight forward AS LONG AS YOU REMEMBER THE KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS YOUR TEACHER GAVE YOU - YOU MUST remember them.

It should be all good, enjoy it, good luck and quote me if you have any further questions!

Thanks!
Except our teacher hasn't gave us anything except for the notes page to fill.

(Of a google search as I don't remember them all off by heart:P)

here are some:

Categoric Variable (e.g. blue or brown eyes)
Discrete Variable (whole numbers)
Ordered Variable (data in order but not actual number, e.g. small, medium, large)
Continuous Variable (Any numerical value, e.g. 34.5 or 92.4)

Hypothesis - the prediction of the investigation
Independent Variable - variable you control
Dependent Variable - variable affected by what you change
Control Variables - the variables you keep the same throughout the test.

Fair Test - Where only the independent variable affects the dependent variable.

Accurate - close to the true value
Precise - E.g. a really close scale of the data

Random error, systematic error.

Anomalous results - results that dont fit the trend of your other results.


Does that resemble the note sheet your teacher gave you to fill out?

Thanks, appreciate it.
The sheet asks for Hypothesis, Research sources, Methods, Risk Assessment and context.

According to the teacher all the first exam will ask for is basically what you wrote on your notes page in a little more detail.

Hmm... that seems odd, what exam board is it? AQA?

Yeah.

And you haven't been taught the keywords above?

And you haven't been taught the keywords above?

My advice would be to try not to be intelligent.

ISA papers are designed to be incredibly simple, don't overcomplicate things, just put down whatever an idiot would and you're likely to get full marks.

Which experiment should i do?

How light intensity/temperature/carbon dioxide effects photosynthesis?
I was thinking of doing Light Intensity..



Thanks

Makes sense about independant learning when you're in year 11 it's encouraged because it's absolutely vital at a-level


for experiment, that would be your choice

light intensity may be the easiest and most straight forward as you may just have to keep 3/4 in different conditions e.g. one in dark, one in sunlight

good luck, and don't worry about it, it isn't supposed to be hard, just make sure you know what you're doing and don't miss out on bread and butter marks like the ones with the keywords

Our teacher said for light intensity, we would simply have to move the light source (lamp) away from the plant and measure the bubbles made.

Thanks for all your help, really appreciate it.
Now i just need to find a couple of websites to help me.

Yeah that's it

and what type of websites? Ones with keywords?

Where allowed to use 2 websites to fill in our notes pages.
Websites that explain the method/risks ect for the experiment.

Nevermind.

..?