OCR GCSE Biology B (21st Century) Depth in Biology Foundation June 2019 question paper J257/02

The skin helps the human body to control its temperature.

Look at the diagram of structures in the skin.

Complete the table to describe how structures in the skin help to cool you down when you

James is feeling cold.

The hairs on his skin are standing on end.

Explain how this helps to warm him up.

James starts to shiver.

Shivering happens because muscles are contracting rapidly.

Explain how this helps to warm him up.

A teacher shows a plant to three students, Ben, Ling and Kai.

The teacher says it could be either a real living plant or a plastic plant.

She challenges the students to investigate whether the plant is real.

Ben takes a small piece of leaf from the plant. He places the piece of leaf on a microscope slide. He looks at the slide using a light microscope.

The piece of leaf appears to be made of cells.

Ben draws a scientific drawing of what he sees.

Ben could draw a better scientific drawing without changing the slide or the microscope.

Describe four ways Ben could improve his scientific drawing.

Ling knows that living plants store glucose as starch.

She tests a leaf from the plant for starch.

Here is her method.

Place the leaf in very hot beaker

Step 2

Write down two hazards in Ling’s method and suggest a way of reducing the risk from each hazard.

way of reducing risk........

way of reducing risk........

The colour change when iodine solution is added shows that the leaf contains starch.

Describe this colour change.

Kai decides to investigate how the plant responds to light.

He places the plant on a sunny windowsill and leaves it there until next week’s lesson.

Write a testable prediction that describes what will happen if the plant is real.

Kai finds that the plant has grown towards the window.

Use ideas about plant hormones to explain how this has happened.

The students conclude that the plant is a real living plant.

Use evidence from the students’ investigations to support this conclusion.

Plastic pollution in the sea is a big problem.

The bar chart shows how long it takes for different types of plastic litter to break down in the

Which type of plastic litter takes the longest time to break down, and how long does it take?

type of plastic litter........

time taken to break down........ years

A crisp packet takes 80 years to break down in the sea.

Which types of litter, shown on the bar chart, will break down faster than a crisp packet?

Tick (✓) two boxes.

Look at the food web from the North Sea.

Add the following information to the food web above:

• Phytoplankton are eaten by shellfish.

• Shellfish and fish are eaten by seagulls.

Draw straight lines to join each part of an ecosystem to the correct example from the food web.

Part of an ecosystem
Example from the food web

Phytoplankton are producers.

Zooplankton, fish, shellfish and seagulls are all consumers.

Describe the differences between a producer and a consumer.

Plastic litter in the sea breaks down into very small pieces of plastic.

Fish cannot tell the difference between very small pieces of plastic, phytoplankton and small zooplankton.

Phytoplankton and small zooplankton are digested by enzymes in a fish’s gut.

Explain why very small pieces of plastic in the sea could cause fish to die.

Humans eat fish caught from the North Sea.

Explain why very small pieces of plastic in the North Sea could be dangerous for humans.

Scientists have discovered some bacteria in a rubbish dump.

These bacteria break down plastic into very small pieces. The pieces can be used to make new plastic products.

People have suggested different ways of using these bacteria.

Whose suggestion would have benefits for the sea and minimise the possible risks?

Explain your answer.

Fossils provide evidence for evolution.

A fossil of an extinct animal called Archaeopteryx was discovered in 1861. A photo of the fossil is shown in Fig. 4.1.

Archaeopteryx has:

• wings and feathers, like a bird

• teeth and three fingers with claws, like many dinosaurs.

How does the Archaeopteryx fossil provide evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs?

Tick (✓) one box.

Twelve fossils of Archaeopteryx have been found.

The twelve Archaeopteryx fossil animals vary in appearance.

Suggest what could have caused these differences in appearance.

Read the article.

Small human skeletons found on the island show that by 50 000 years ago:

• the average height of the humans on Flores had decreased to about 1 m

• the maximum body mass had decreased to 25 kg.

Explain how natural selection caused the humans on the island to become smaller over many generations.

Some scientists think the small Flores humans from 50 000 years ago should be classified as a different species of humans.

Suggest why they could be classified as a different species.

Cystic fibrosis is a disease caused by a person’s DNA.

Describe the structure of DNA.

Cystic fibrosis is caused by a single gene.

There are two alleles of the gene:

• the dominant allele, F, does not cause cystic fibrosis

• the recessive allele, f, causes cystic fibrosis.

What is the phenotype of a person who has the alleles FF ?

What is the phenotype of a person who has the alleles Ff ?

What is the genotype of a person who has cystic fibrosis?

A couple is thinking about having a baby.

The woman and the man both have the alleles Ff.

The Punnett square shows the possible combinations of alleles in their offspring.

Use the Punnett square to help you answer the questions.

What proportion of their offspring is likely to have the allele combination FF ?

What percentage of their offspring is likely to have the allele combination Ff ?

What is the probability that any one of their offspring will have cystic fibrosis?

* A different couple is also thinking about having a baby.

• The woman has had a genetic test. It showed that she has the f allele.

• She does not have cystic fibrosis.

• The man does not know what alleles he has.

• He does not have cystic fibrosis.

Explain the possible genotypes and phenotypes of their baby and explain what things the couple should consider before deciding to have a baby.

Photosynthesis takes place in plants.

Put one tick in each row of the table to show the function of each plant structure.

After she has finished the investigation, Eve uses her data to plot the graph in Fig. 6.2.

Eve decides to repeat the experiment at 45 °C so that she can take new measurements at this temperature.

Use evidence from Fig. 6.2 to justify Eve’s decision.

Here are Eve’s new measurements.

Use Eve’s new measurements to complete the graph in Fig. 6.3.

You may use the space below for working out.

Describe the trend in the data shown in the graph in Fig. 6.3.

Use data from Fig. 6.3 to support your answer.

The volume of gas collected changed as the temperature changed.

Calculate the change in volume per degree between 35 °C and 40 °C.

Change in volume per degree =........ mm³ / °C

7* Layla is a doctor. She works with patients in a hospital.

Explain why it is good that Layla does the following things:

• She washes her hands regularly while she is at work.

• Each day she drinks a yogurt drink that contains living bacteria.