Practical questions

During the GCSE Biology course you will complete practical activities from eight Practical Activity Groups (PAGs).

The exams will include questions about some of these experiments. You may also be asked to apply what you know to unfamiliar practical contexts, which will draw on your practical knowledge and understanding.

You could be asked to:

write or identify a hypothesis or prediction that could be tested in an experiment
name equipment and measuring instruments, and describe what they do and how they are used
identify factors that must be controlled, and explain why
describe how to work safely
process data by doing calculations and representing it graphically
identify patterns and trends in data
evaluate the accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of data, and identify possible errors and anomalous results
suggest improvements to methods
interpret data and draw conclusions from it

Practical questions will appear throughout both exam papers (Breadth and Depth), and at both Foundation Tier and Higher Tier. Practical questions could be multiple-choice or free-response, and could include calculations. A six-mark question could be asked in a practical context, so practice writing in detail about the practical work you have done.

It's important to look back at your lab book or your notes from the practical activities you have done when revising for your exams.

Sample question 1 - Foundation

Question

A group of students are conducting an experiment on Daphnia (water fleas) to investigate the effect of temperature on living things.

Daphnia are very small organisms. The students viewed the Daphnia using a light microscope.

It is possible to observe the heart of the Daphnia beating while observing it using a microscope.

The group place the Daphnia in water at different temperatures to see the effect on the heart rate of Daphnia.

Their results are shown below.

Temperature (°C)	Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Mean
17	25	22	25	24	24
20	27	27	25	25	26
23	30	30	30	34	31
25	33	57	36	39	36

Temperature (°C)	17
Group A	25
Group B	22
Group C	25
Group D	24
Mean	24

Temperature (°C)	20
Group A	27
Group B	27
Group C	25
Group D	25
Mean	26

Temperature (°C)	23
Group A	30
Group B	30
Group C	30
Group D	34
Mean	31

Temperature (°C)	25
Group A	33
Group B	57
Group C	36
Group D	39
Mean	36

What conclusion can the students draw about their experiment? [1 mark]

OCR 21st Century, GCE Biology, Paper J257, 2016.

Sample question 2 - Foundation

Question

Limpets are molluscs that are found on rocky shores.

A student wants to sample a rocky shore to work out if the population of limpets differs on different parts of the shore.

Describe a method that the student could use to determine where on the rocky shore there are more limpets. [3 marks]

OCR 21st Century, GCE Biology, Paper J257, 2016.

Sample question 3 - Higher

Question

Read the following paragraph about classification.

"Scientists know that DNA codes for amino acids. They also know that amino acids are joined together to make proteins. By examining the sequence of amino acids in the same proteins in different animals, scientists can work out how closely related the animals are. The more similar the sequence, the more closely related organisms are. This technique is now being used to classsify organims in a completely new and more reliable way."

The table shows the sequences for eleven amino acids in humans and four other organisms.

Organism	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Number of differences
Human	Gly	Asp	Val	Glu	Lys	Gly	Lys	Lys	Ile	Phe	Ile	-
A	Gly	Asp	Ile	Glu	Lys	Gly	Lys	Lys	Val	Phe	Val	3
B	Gly	Asp	Ile	Glu	Lys	Gly	Lys	Lys	Ile	Phe	Val	1
C	Gly	Asp	Ile	Glu	Lys	Gly	Lys	Lys	Ile	Phe	Val	2
D	Gly	Asn	Pro	Asp	Ala	Gly	Ala	Lys	Leu	Phe	Lys	7

Organism	Human
1	Gly
2	Asp
3	Val
4	Glu
5	Lys
6	Gly
7	Lys
8	Lys
9	Ile
10	Phe
11	Ile
Number of differences	-

Organism	A
1	Gly
2	Asp
3	Ile
4	Glu
5	Lys
6	Gly
7	Lys
8	Lys
9	Val
10	Phe
11	Val
Number of differences	3

Organism	B
1	Gly
2	Asp
3	Ile
4	Glu
5	Lys
6	Gly
7	Lys
8	Lys
9	Ile
10	Phe
11	Val
Number of differences	1

Organism	C
1	Gly
2	Asp
3	Ile
4	Glu
5	Lys
6	Gly
7	Lys
8	Lys
9	Ile
10	Phe
11	Val
Number of differences	2

Organism	D
1	Gly
2	Asn
3	Pro
4	Asp
5	Ala
6	Gly
7	Ala
8	Lys
9	Leu
10	Phe
11	Lys
Number of differences	7

Look at organisms A, B, C and D. The text in bold shows where the sequences of amino acids differ from those found in humans.

The column on the right shows the total number of these differences.

Describe and explain the conclusions that can be made from the data in the table. [3 marks]

Use the information in the paragraph above to help you.

OCR 21st Century, GCE Biology, Paper J257 - Higher, 2016.

Sample exam questions - life on Earth - past, present and futurePractical questions