Progressing with Checkpoint Science: Biology

A major feature of every science course is progression. This allows students to build up their scientific literacy to use throughout their lives and in lower secondary school to prepare a foundation for success in future science examinations.

With school terms underway worldwide, let’s look at how the Cambridge Checkpoint Science books build up knowledge of biology at each stage as the course begins. There are many different aspects to explore here – chapter headings are in bold with brief descriptions of key content.

Primary science lays the foundations for studying biology on this course with topics such as plants, animals (including humans), habitats and, towards the end of the course, often evolution. Here biology is naturally studied in greater depth.

At the start of the introduction, it is suggested that a study of biology could lead to becoming a botanist or a marine zoologist. At the end of the introduction, the students are challenged to use their previous knowledge to make a model of a flower from any materials they choose.

From these early starter activities, the students plunge straight in to considering what makes a living thing.

Chapter 1: The characteristics of living things explores the seven characteristics of life. The practical work begins by investigating the question “How do muscles change your face?” and ends by looking at the possibility of life beyond the Earth through an up-to-date investigation into the question “Have we found alien life?”

Chapter 2: Identifying species develops observational skills in the context of making a biological drawing, then the principles of classification are explored, leading to developing skills in using keys. The chapter ends by examining how scientists explore for new species using a range of techniques which includes examining soil and water for their DNA.

Chapter 3: Cells gives students plenty of opportunities to make observations with a microscope. Along the way, they discover the basic parts of plant and animal cells, how cells are adapted to perform particular functions and how they build up into organisms. The chapter ends by looking at bacteria and viruses and how viruses invade living tissue.

Chapter 4: Microorganisms explores the role of decomposers in a habitat, leading to identifying the position of microorganisms in food chains and food webs. The historical discoveries of Pasteur are followed by the work today of associations dedicated to the study of soil to help farmers in the production of food around the world.

The first five chapters in this book cover body science, leading students towards a healthy lifestyle.

Chapter 1: Joints and muscles – students begin by considering their skeletons, then examining X-rays of joints before discovering how muscles move bones in a hinge joint.

Chapter 2: Blood begins by asking the question “When did you last see your own blood?” – with the hope the answer is a minor cut or graze. From there, the chapter dives into the parts of blood, building on previous knowledge of cells with a study of red blood cells and white blood cells. Plasma is also explored and the chapter ends by looking at how blood transfusions work to save lives.

Chapter 3: The respiratory system begins by building on respiration introduced as a characteristic of life in Stage 7. It distinguishes respiration from breathing at the outset, then moves on to consider the parts of the respiratory system and a study of asthma and its treatment. In the section on breathing movements, there are investigations on comparing experimental techniques and exploring the relationship between breathing and exercise. The section on gaseous exchange leads to a consideration of how an analogy can help understanding.

Chapter 4: A healthy diet begins by considering two examples of a diet – one healthy and one unhealthy – with students invited to assess their own diets. A survey of the nutrients needed by the body is followed by how the body uses them. Energy in food is explored using food tables and making calculations on the data in them. The importance of a balanced healthy diet is presented and the chapter ends by considering the treatment of malnutrition and famine.

Chapter 5: A healthy lifestyle builds on the previous chapter by looking at diet, malnutrition, deficiency diseases and the role of the dietitian. The content of Chapter 2: Blood is extended here to consider how to keep the heart and circulatory system healthy. Students learn how to correctly take a pulse, then apply their knowledge in activities on careful exercise. The chapter ends with a detailed look at how smoking can damage health and affect the health of unborn babies. The section ends with suggestions to help smokers give up their habit.

The last two chapters of the book provide students with a very different biological topic – ecology.

Chapter 6: Ecosystems around the world begins with perhaps the surprising fact that you live in an ecosystem! It moves on to look at exploring ecosystems in the past and in the present, then sets out a vocabulary of ecology before looking at the rainforest ecosystem, the desert ecosystem and the ecosystem of the oceans and seas. A model of an ecosystem is presented before bioaccumulation is explored with reference to poisons in food chains, then the problem of invasive species is examined.

Chapter 7: Investigating an ecosystem encourages students to get out into their surroundings and, with your supervision, discover at first hand the components of an ecosystem. An in-depth study of habitat surveys is followed by instructions about how students can make a survey themselves. This involves making a desk survey, studying a map and carrying out a range of survey techniques including using a quadrat, making a transect, collecting from soil and leaf litter, making a pitfall trap, using a sweep net and a sheet and beater, and how to collect pond animals. The chapter then suggests six surveys to make to get a full description of the habitat and its ecosystem.

Biology at Stage 7 began by considering the characteristics of life. Here, at Stage 9, biology begins with Chapter 1: Water and Life.

The chapter begins by looking at our watery planet, then moves on to explore how water passes through the bodies of plants and the importance of minerals that it carries. This first section ends by looking at how satellites are used to monitor the planet’s vegetation. The human renal system is examined and the chapter ends with an explanation of how a kidney machine works.

Chapter 2: Photosynthesis brings together many of the working scientifically skills that have been developed during the course and places them in the context of a research programme. A study of experiments from the past sets the scene, then students begin to build up the equation for photosynthesis by way of a series of scientific enquiries. The chapter ends by looking at a perfect environment for plant growth and using scientific knowledge to grow more food.

Chapter 3: Genetics is in two sections. It begins by looking at variation in living things, then moving on to the work of Gregor Mendel and others and the development of the word ‘genes’. Chromosomes are then introduced and the relationship between genes and chromosomes is established before studying sex chromosomes and gametes. Diving further into this topic, students learn about DNA and how it was discovered, and this section ends with a genetic vocabulary table. The second section presents the theory of natural selection and the work of Darwin and ends by bringing the work on natural selection and genetics together to give a greater understanding of how the two are linked.

Chapter 4: Care in foetal development builds on certain aspects of a healthy lifestyle that was studied in Stage 8. Here the focus is on the care of the developing baby or foetus by revisiting issues such as a balanced diet, the effect of smoking and the harmful effect of drugs. The chapter ends with the birth of the baby and its neonatal care, in which the components of an incubator are introduced and their functions explained.

Chapter 5: Environmental change and extinction follows on from the ecological chapters in Stage 8. It begins by showing how the term ‘environment’ is related to the term ‘habitat’, then looks at how organisms are adapted to the environmental conditions around them. The work of Jane Goodall is featured as an example of making close observations to support students’ work in Stage 8 when making an ecological survey. A food web is then presented as an ecological model before the consequences of population change are examined. This leads to the concept of endangered species and extinction events, including the one we are in now – the Anthropocene extinction.