Exam Board: AQA Specification: 2410
This course is taught over two years. After one year, however, students are awarded AS Level, which counts a stand-alone qualification. The second year of the course cannot be taken without having been awarded the AS level.
Students wishing to study this course must have GCSE grade C or higher in Biology, Maths, English and preferably Chemistry. As with the GCSE course, the complex scientific vocabulary demands a confident speaker of English.
Over the two years, students explore ways in which living organisms are affected by and fight disease, find food, use energy, regulate their bodies, get rid of waste substances, exploit their environments and produce offspring. Students also study the impacts of certain biotechnological advances. Students are encouraged to think for themselves and to take responsibility for their studies (in preparation for university), but the course is clearly structured, with a variety of regular assignments and plenty of practical work and practice on past papers.
Skills and qualities that are developed include experimental design, observation, safe use of scientific apparatus, data analysis and statistics, exam technique, awareness of human effects on our planet and respect for all life.
AS Level (Year 1)
Structure of the course:
The AS specification comprises three units, each of which is assessed and contributes to the total grade.
Units 1 and 2 are assessed by external exams, and Unit 3 is a centre-assessed unit evaluating students’ practical and investigative skills. Unit 1 is worth 33% of the total AS-Level grade (16% of the total A-Level grade), Unit 2 is worth 46% (23%) and Unit 3 is worth 20% (10%).
Topics covered include:
Unit 1:
The normal structure and function of mammalian digestive and gas exchange systems and how they can be affected by communicable and non-communicable diseases.
How the body defends against disease.
The interpretation of data relating to risk factors for diseases.
Unit 2:
The influence of genetic and environmental factors on intra-specific variation How the variety of life is reflected in similarities and differences in biochemical basis and cellular organization
The effect of size and metabolic rate on an organism’s requirements, and how this gives rise to adaptations
Unit 3:
Practical work carried out in the contexts of Units 1 and 2
Students are assessed on practical skills during AQA-set tasks (Practical Skills Assessment – PSA), and investigative skills in an AQA-set test paper (Investigative Skills Assessment – ISA).
A2 Level (Year 2)
Structure of the course:
Similar to the approach taken at AS, the A2 specification comprises three units; two assessed by external exams, and one a centre-assessed practical unit. Units 4, 5 and 6 are worth 16%, 23% and 10% of the total grade, respectively.
Topics covered include:
Unit 4:
How living organisms form ecosystems, through which energy is transferred and chemical elements cycled.
How human activity affects the ecological balance in a variety of ways
How genetic variation and isolation may lead to the formation of new species.
Unit 5:
The biology behind the workings of the nervous and endocrine systems
Homeostasis and the maintenance of a constant internal environment
Genes and Genetic Expression
Gene technology
Unit 6:
Practical work carried out in the contexts of Units 4 and 5
Students are assessed on practical skills during AQA-set tasks (Practical Skills Assessment – PSA), and investigative skills in an AQA-set test paper (Investigative Skills Assessment – ISA).
For more information on this course, please go to http://www.aqa.org.uk/