Stem

A-Level Biology Practical Endorsement

Designed for students studying for their A Level Biology with AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas or OCR.

Course Information

The A level biology practical endorsement courses at Frobel Education are mapped against the Specification Criteria and the Common Practical Assessment criteria (CPAC).

A minimum of 12 practical activities need to be carried out by each student to show competence in the practical techniques listed in the syllabus.

The result of the Practical Endorsement is reported separately on the A level certificate, in addition to the overall grade for theory. The Practical endorsement will be assessed by teachers and will be based on direct observation of students ‘competency in a range of skills that are not assessable in written exams.

In A level biology students are required to perform a range of experiments that are listed in our course information.

The course covers the following topics

Practical: Investigation into the effect of a named variable on the rate of an enzyme- controlled reaction.
Practical: Preparation of stained squashes of cells from plant root tips; set-up and use of optical microscope to identify the stages of mitosis in these stained squashes and calculation of mitotic index.
Practical: Production of dilution of a solute to produce a calibration curve with which to identify the water potential of plant tissue.
Practical: Investigations into the effect of a named variable on the permeability of cell-surface membrane.
Practical: Dissection of animal or plant gas exchange or mass transport system or of organ within such a system.
Practical: Use of aseptic techniques to investigate the effect of antimicrobial substances on microbial growth.
Practical: Use of chromatography to investigate the pigments isolated from leaves of different plants e.g: leaves from shade-tolerant and shade-intolerant plants or leaves of different colours.
Practical: Investigation into the effect of a named factor on the rate of dehydrogenase activity in extracts of chloroplasts.
Practical: Investigation into the effect of a named variable on the rate of respiration of cultures of single celled organisms.
Practical: Investigation of the effect of an environment variable on the movement of an animal using either a choice chamber or a maze.
Practical: Production of a dilution series of a glucose solution and use of colorimetric techniques to produce a calibration curve with which to identify the concentration of glucose in an unknown urine sample 65.
Practical: Investigation into the effect of named environment factor on the distribution of a given species.
Practical: Investigating osmosis in an artificial cell.
Practical: Qualitative testing for biological molecules – Glucose.
Practical: The effect of enzyme concentration on the rate of a reaction.
Practical: The dissection of a stem

Prerequisites

Students must be studying for their A Level Biology with AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas or OCR via distance learning or at another Centre.
This course is designed to be an intensive practical course for students who wish to fast track their A Level practical assessment. This course will give attendees a limited number of opportunities to attempt each of the assessed practicals.
For students with limited or no practical laboratory experience, Frobel recommends they attend our short course entitled ‘Introduction to Laboratory Skills’. This course will equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to achieve the A Level practical assessment to a good standard.