AQA A&B GCSE Science: fieldwork opportunities
Go down to section: 11.5 What determines which particular species lives and how many of them there are? | 11.8 How do humans affect their environment? | 11.4 What happens to energy and biomass at each stage of the food chain?
Fieldwork opportunities within the AQA A&B specifications
Specification sections |
Learning objectives |
Possible outdoor investigations |
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11.5 What determines which particular species lives and how many of them there are? How Science Works - the Procedural content Making planning decisions about sustainable development Requires data obtained from field studies. Typical investigation: a field study to investigate the effects of human intervention on the distribution of plants or animals. |
.A to suggest how organisms are adapted to the conditions in which they live .B to suggest the factors for which organisms are competing in a given habitat .C to suggest reasons for the distribution of animals or plants in a particular habitat. substantive contexts: .1To survive, organisms require a supply of materials from their surroundings and from the other living organisms there. . 2 Plants often compete with each other for light and for water and nutrients from the soil. . 3 Animals often compete with each other for food, mates and territory. . 4 Organisms have features (adaptations) which enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live. . 5 Animals and plants may be adapted for survival in the conditions where they normally live eg deserts, the Arctic . . 6 Animals and plants may be adapted to cope with specific features of their environment eg thorns, poisons and warning colours to deter predators. |
A study across a path; the way species composition and plant morphology change along a transect A comparison of a undisturbed site and trampled site A study of specific plants in shade and unshaded (nettles) - leaf area, leaf pigmentation, internode length, leaf thickness. Grazing induced defence mechanisms e.g density of stinging hairs in nettle, leaf prickliness vs height ratio in holly Contrasting freshwater habitats - what species live where and why? |
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11.8 How do humans affect their environment? |
A to analyse and interpret scientific data concerning environmental issues B to weigh evidence and form balanced judgements about some of the major environmental issues facing society, including the importance of sustainable development C to evaluate methods used to collect environmental data and consider their validity and reliability as evidence for environmental change. substantive contexts: .1 More waste is being produced which, unless properly handled, may pollute: - water with sewage, fertiliser or toxic chemicals - air with smoke and gases such as sulfur dioxide which contribute to acid rain - land with toxic chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides, which may be washed from land into water. 2 Living organisms can be used as indicators of pollution: - lichens can be used as air pollution indicators - invertebrate animals can be used as water pollution indicators. Improving the quality of life without compromising future generations is known as sustainable development. Planning is needed at local, regional and global levels to manage sustainability. |
A lichen transect from a busy road to the centre of a parkland along a footpath/ Comparison of pollution levels - transects / mapping of particulates - using Vaseline slides / sellotape / leaf washing, and compare with national statistics. Contrasting freshwater habitats. - What species live where and why? |
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Additional Science 11.4 What happens to energy and biomass at each stage of the food chain? |
A. to interpret pyramids of biomass and construct them from appropriate information B. to evaluate the positive and negative effects of managing food production and distribution, and to be able to recognise that practical solutions to human needs may require compromise between competing priorities. substantive contexts: 1. Radiation from the Sun is the source of energy for most communities of living organisms. Green plants capture a small part of the solar energy which reaches them. This energy is stored in the substances which make up the cells of the plants. 2. The mass of living material (biomass) at each stage in a food chain is less than it was at the previous stage. The biomass at each stage can be drawn to scale and shown as a pyramid of biomass. 3. At each stage in a food chain, less material and less energy are contained in the biomass of the organisms. This means that the efficiency of food production can be improved by reducing the number of stages in food chains. 4. The efficiency of food production can also be improved by restricting energy loss from food animals by limiting their movement and by controlling the temperature of their surroundings. 5. The amounts of material and energy contained in the biomass of organisms is reduced at each successive stage in a food chain because: - some materials and energy are always lost in the organisms. waste materials - respiration supplies all the energy needs for living processes, including movement; much of this energy is eventually lost as heat to the surroundings - these losses are especially large in mammals and birds whose bodies must be kept at a constant temperature which is usually higher than that of their surroundings. |
Holly leaf miner-study - Holly leaf-miners show basic living food chains. They can be used to study pyramid of numbers directly and these numbers can be used to construct pyramids of biomass. Feeding relationships - small invertebrates (pyramids of numbers, predator-prey relationships, role in decomposition) - sweep netting of longer vegetation (nettles, cow parsley, etc.). Freshwater environment - pyramid of numbers. |
