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Welcome
Monacia
Williams, Contributor
Welcome
to the beginning of another school
year! Did you enjoy your holidays?
Yeah, I know, it was too short and
it was over just as you started to
have fun! Well, I hope the fun was
just enough to last you for the next
10 months, because if you want to
get a good grade in your external
exam you will definitely need to pay
closer attention to the books from
now on. Did you spare a few moments
for biology during your holidays?
I hope you did! If you didn't, I hope
you are ready to do so now.
This
year we will begin by going over some
pointers that you can use while writing
up your school-based assessments (SBAs).
Remember that if you do not submit
your SBAs you are going to fail the
exam! Use the opportunity to do these
well so that you can gain the maximum
number of marks from them.
Do
you remember the skills you need to
master? You do? Good for you! For
those who do not remember, they are:
- Observation,
reporting, recording - ORR
- Analysis
and interpretation - AI
- Planning
and design - PD
- Drawing
- Manipulation
and measurement - MM
Over
the next couple of lessons I will
be going through examples of experiments
with you and sample mark schemes that
could be used for assessing them.
We
will begin with the first skill listed
- ORR. For our example, I have chosen
a popular experiment - the effect
of pH on enzyme action. The enzyme
to be used is catalase and this will
be provided by crushing and blending
freshly peeled Irish potato; the substrate
is hydrogen peroxide. This is an experiment
that can be marked for ORR and AI.
Experiments that require the use of
tables and graphs to record information
are excellent for testing the knowledge
needed for ORR.
Let
us look at a sample mark scheme that
could be used to for the experiment.
Once you are clear about how an experiment
is marked, then there should be very
little preventing you from achieving
full marks for your write-up. All
skills are assessed so that the maximum
mark attained is 10. This means that
if the exercise is marked out of 20
it has to be scaled back to 10.
Mark
scheme
For
each prerequisite I have put the type
of information that your teacher might
be looking for. Observation indicates
the main points that you should have
noted while doing the experiment.
Recording refers to how you have presented
the information that you have gained
while carrying out the experiment.
Reporting assesses your knowledge
of how to write up an experiment and
discussion demonstrates your understanding
of the knowledge you have gained from
carrying out the experiment.
- Observation
- Optimum temperature noted
Rate
of reaction is slow at the extremes
(2 marks)
- Recording
- Neatly drawn table
Graph
drawn correctly (2 marks)
- Reporting
- Correct format used
Report
is written in the past tense
Report
is written in Standard English
Method
shows the correct sequence used
in carrying out the experiment.
(4 marks)
- Discussion
- What is the effect of pH on enzymes?
Why
does the paper rise?
What
is the purpose of the potato?
What
is the effect of catalase on the
potato? (2 marks)
Next
week we will look at a sample write-up
for this experiment. Until then, keep
the faith, we are going to have a
wonderful and hard-working year together!
Monacia
Williams teaches at Glenmuir
High School.
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