Unit 5 scientific document practice
In Unit 5 the last question (20 marks) is based on a scientific document that is released before the exam. Each practice document here is about 1,600 words in numbered paragraphs, followed by a 20-mark question whose parts end with a paragraph reference. The reference shows you the context; most marks come from your own Topic 7 and 8 knowledge and from earlier topics. Use study mode to read the document first, then answer the questions, open each mark scheme and rate your own marks.
8 practice documents. Every document is an original illustrative text written for Scholar Lab: the biology is real, but the studies, researchers and figures are invented.
Your marks are saved only in this browser on this device. Written answers are never saved. Clearing your practice record on My progress also clears these marks.
Topic 7: Respiration and the internal environment
- Burning to keep warm: the biology of brown fatBrown adipose tissue, UCP1 and uncoupled respiration, with a cold-exposure study and a drug trial.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 7.14, 7.16(i), 7.22, 7.4, 8.13, 8.15, 8.16, 8.2Not tried
- The thirst switch: how kidneys keep the body’s water in balanceUltrafiltration, the loop of Henle and ADH, desert rodents, a dehydration study and diabetes insipidus.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 7.19, 7.20, 7.21, 7.22, 8.16Not tried
Topic 8: Coordination, response and gene technology
- The volume knob for pain: one sodium channel and the search for new painkillersNav1.7, action potentials and myelin, tetrodotoxin and lidocaine, and a trial of a selective channel blocker.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 8.1, 8.2, 8.4, 8.5, 8.7Not tried
- Running out of dopamine: treating Parkinson’s disease, from L-dopa to stem cellsDopamine synapses, PET imaging, L-dopa and MAO-B inhibitors, misfolded proteins and stem-cell neurone transplants.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 8.15, 8.16, 8.6(i), 8.7Not tried
- Growing towards the light: how plants sense their neighbours, and how short wheat fed millionsPhytochrome and the red to far-red ratio, auxin and acid growth, seed germination, gibberellin, DELLA proteins and Green Revolution wheat.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 8.11Not tried
- The fish that grows all year: genetically modified salmon and gene-edited fishRecombinant DNA, promoters, microinjection, peptide hormones, triploid sterility, containment and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 7.22, 8.18Not tried
- More than a chemical imbalance: rethinking serotonin and depressionSerotonin synapses, MAO inhibitors and SSRIs, brain regions, fMRI, MDMA, polygenic inheritance and epigenetics.20 marks · about 24 min · spec 8.14, 8.15, 8.16, 8.7Not tried