A level science teachers- advice for worried yr 11?

[Cathpot]

Hi- I’ve had one of my lovely triple Biology kids email to ask what they can usefully do to prepare for A levels . We are an 11-16 school so we don’t have resources geared up for this. I have some limited experience teaching biology AS and I’ve put feelers out to friends who teach A level , but I thought I’d ask more generally on here. I am setting up an information hub for all the pupils intending to go on and do science A level.

Essentially- if you teach an A level science what would you appreciate your new year 12s having done in advance?

I suppose it all depends on which A levels and which syllabus the student is following. Once you know that, Google that syllabus.

We normally set a research exercise for incoming Y12 Biologists. They have to research eukaryotic organelle structure and function. You could also suggest they practice drawing out alpha and beta glucose, a phospholipid and a tryglyceride.

True- but not sure which syllabus and don’t know if college is open for them to ask. Ideas I’ve had so far are things like generic books ( Roberts for Biology, the more accessible quantum physics books like -In search of schrodingers cat etc) and a couple of ‘transition packs’ that schools with 6th form issue. I think the feeling that they are doing something useful will be comforting to hard working gcse students who’ve just had the rug pulled out from under them.

Thanks catandfiddle will add that to the list.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/head-start-to-a-level-biology/cgp-books/cgp-books/9781782942795?awc=378715849490066421d7208d713a3336d16e09bf6fddacf&utmsource=259955&utmmmedium=affiliate&utm_campaign=Genie+Shopping

Something like this might help?

Lovely, thanks

A lot of the A-level biology syllabuses (but not all) start off with some sort of biochemistry.

The things they do relating to DNA structure and protein synthesis at GCSE will be expanded on, so making sure they fully understand this part of the GCSE Inheritance, Evolution and Variation topic will be really useful- this is something lots get through GCSE without really understanding fully as it's a hard thing to grasp.

There are some good resources on Khan Academy about this which might be useful.

One interesting book I'd recommend if they are interested in biology or psychology A-level is Nature Via Nurture by Matt Ridley- it is a little bit out of date now, but it's very readable for a bright 16 year old and has lots of interesting things to say about genetics.

Best thing to prepare - make sure you actually understand the gcse properly. Not rote-learned enough to pass the exam. Actually understand the underlying principles. There's also some stuff you can do on understanding how science works to get a head start on the practical stuff.

Not in education, but thinking about the type of people we end up recruiting, Perhaps also reading around your subject, I think there are magazine and such for different subjects, but also things like news scientist.. use the time to have a poke into topics they find interesting

Keep the maths going, redo all your old exercises

Thanks all. I’ll update the info group. I’ve got the CGP grade 8-9 workbook to recommend which does a good job of practising those cross topic links which I think would help with that idea if not just rote learning. I’m feeling very deflated today really. Our school have said focus on year 10, set the yr 11 some revision to keep them ticking over but don’t mark it. Most won’t do it without that feedback and with no exam as motivation, and suddenly those kids who my gut feeling was they were starting to pull it out the bag- parents on board, doing the extra work, are shafted as I have to predict on the grades I have proof for from early January . I will have no extra evidence because they have come to a halt. Any way that’s a rant for a different thread. Thank you for your positive suggestions.

This resource is awesome. Free download and covers Biology WJEC but is essential content for most boards.

I use it a lot.

www.bangor.ac.uk/going-to-university/revision-guides/biology-en-2019

I echo GiantRedPanda. If she's thinking about doing chemistry A-level, then the quantitative chemistry topic is particularly important and also organic chemistry. They are the 2 I would start on. She needs to make sure she can do all the calculations in the quantitative chemistry topic - practice loads.
Organic - make sure she knows the functional groups for the different types of organic compounds, and how one can be made into another.

Chemguide is a good A-level website.

Thanks. I’ve just seen on another thread that CGP are making their kindle transition guides free at the moment

Just opened that document wantmorenow, looks great

There's one on the site for chemistry too.

General interest science reading! Dawkins, Goldacre, Goodall etc. That and enjoy the news at the moment. There is little to be gleeful in it at the moment, but it does feel like STEM professionals are suddenly centre stage. Find out how the antibody testing kits will work for example.

The CGP kindle editions of Head start to phys/chem/bio A level are currently free.
Just download kindle app.

For chemistry, learning formulae of common ions and molecules, writing formulae of ionic compounds and thorough practise of moles calculations.

www.amazon.co.uk/Head-Start-level-Chemistry-Level-ebook/dp/B00VE2NIGG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=headstart+to+a+level+chemistry&sprefix=hwadstart&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1585693025&sr=8-1

How about this? twitter.com/mrswbio1/status/1245385926701957121?s=21

Thanks- adding things to our showbie group as they turn up. I don’t use Twitter- so idiot twitter question- is there an easy way of downloading resources?

I’ve now had a student asking about IB biology / chemistry , about which I know very little - I’ve found her what seems to be a syllabus and there looks to be lots of overlap in the first cell unit. Any IB advice?

Will link to biology book suggestions, I’d only done that for physics, and New Scientist - I’ve got a pile at home but can’t think of any sensible way to give them out. I like this chemistry book

I think the best thing your student can do is have a secure knowledge of the GCSE. This means that they have a solid foundation for A level. Often in the first term we are still trying to correct previous understanding. E.g for Chemistry- understand ions, writing chemical formulae, understanding basics of organic chemistry. If your student hasn't done triple they could always read up on the additional triple content as sometimes this helps with some A level topics.

Good point stardanced- I’ll put a comment up about that. I’m setting optional work for my triples and those hoping to do A level are mostly doing it. We don’t have a 6th form so it will be even more of a challenge for the A level teachers to bring everyone together as they don’t know the students .

I would also echo a previous poster @dogsaresomucheasier (never linked to a previous poster so no idea if I have done that correctly) regarding general Science reading. It makes personal statements better to have some depth, but students can be asked questions about their reading material at university interviews so need to make sure they have actually read the books they have listed. There is little spare time in Yr12 and 13 so reading now would be great. They don't even have to be super scientific, anything that is is interesting. Ideas could be Bad Science by Ben Goodacre, any books by Mary Roach (interest science)- she has done them on space, sex, digestive system, death and others that I can't remember right now. The death one is really interesting if a little sad. They are interesting and would work for Yr11 and beyond. If your student has an idea of what they would like to do after A levels they could always start researching how to get where they want to- which universities might be good etc. All this will free up time over the next two years to just focus on their studies.

A bit late perhaps but the head start to a level bio/Chem/ phys kindle books are free on amazon