OCR A GCSE Science: fieldwork opportunities

Specification sections

Learning objectives

Possible outdoor investigations

OCR Science A

C1 Air Quality

C1.1 Which chemicals make up air, and which ones are pollutants? How do I make sense of data about air pollution?

6. When using their own and given data relating to measured concentrations of atmospheric pollutants, or the composition of the atmosphere:

. uses data rather than opinion in justifying an explanation;

. can suggest reasons why a measurement may be inaccurate;

. can suggest reasons why several measurements of the same quantity

may give different results;

. when asked to evaluate data, makes reference to its reliability (i.e. is it repeatable?);

. can calculate the mean of a set of repeated measurements;

. from a set of repeated measurements of a quantity, uses the mean as the best estimate of the true value;

. can explain why repeating measurements leads to a better estimate of the quantity;

. can make a sensible suggestion about the range within which the true value of a measured quantity probably lies;

. can justify the claim that there is / is not a 'real difference' between two measurements of the same quantity;

. can identify any outliers in a set of data, and give reasons for including or discarding them.

Investigate particulate pollution (vaseline slides / sellotape / leaf washing). What effect do trees have? Transect away from a main road in both open and wooded areas/ transect from busy street to open areas.

Lichens - Line transect from a busy road to the centre of a park counting the abundance of lichens within a quadrat

C1.2

What chemical reactions produce air pollutants? Where do these pollutants come from?

13. understand that atmospheric pollutants cannot just disappear, they have to go somewhere:

. particulate carbon is deposited on surfaces, making them dirty;

. sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide react with water and oxygen to produce acid rain;

Investigate particulate pollution (vaseline slides / sellotape / leaf washing). What effect do trees have?

Transect away from a main road in both open and wooded areas.

OCR Science A

B3 Life on Earth

B3.4 Why do some species become extinct, and does it matter? What is the importance of biodiversity?

1. Understand that living organisms are dependent on the environment and other species for their survival;

2. Understand that there is competition for resources between different species of animals or plants in the same habitat;

3. Relate changes affecting one species in a food web to the impact on other species that are part of the same food web;

4. Understand that a rapid change in the environment may cause a species to become extinct, for example, if:

. the environmental conditions change;

. a new species that is a competitor, predator or disease organism of

that species is introduced;

. another organism in its food web becomes extinct.

Holly leaf-miner - population dynamics, pyramids of numbers

A study across a path along a transect of species composition & plant morphology

Mowing regime - long/short grass comparisons, sweep netting for invertebrates.

Bugs on bushes- tree beating/ sweep netting - pyramids of numbers

Study specific plants in shade and unshaded (nettles) - leaf area, leaf pigmentation, internode length, leaf thickness.

Contrasting freshwater habitats.

- What species live where and why?