AQA GCSE Synergy Paper 1: Life and environmental sciences Foundation June 2025 question paper 8465/1F

A teacher had a conical flask containing a gas.

How are the particles arranged in a gas?

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Particles are all touching each other.

Particles are arranged in a pattern.

Particles are arranged randomly.

How do the particles move in a gas?

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Particles move at the same speed.

Particles move in circular paths.

Particles move randomly.

The teacher demonstrated how gas pressure varies with temperature.

Figure 1 shows the apparatus used.

The Bunsen burner transferred thermal energy to the water.

The change in thermal energy of the water was 31 500 J.

The mass of water in the beaker was 0.25 kg.

Calculate the temperature increase of the water.

Specific heat capacity of water = 4200 J/kg °C

Use the equation:

When the temperature of the gas in the conical flask increased, the gas pressure in the conical flask increased.

How did increasing the temperature affect the mean speed of the gas particles?

How did increasing the temperature affect the mean kinetic energy of the gas particles?

A student investigated three inks using chromatography.

The three inks used were A, B and C.

Inks contain different coloured dyes.

Figure 2 shows the apparatus.

The student used water as the solvent and then repeated the investigation with alcohol as the solvent.

With water as the solvent, the dyes in each ink did not separate.

With alcohol as the solvent, the dyes in each ink did separate.

Why did the chromatography not work when water was used as the solvent?

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The inks were insoluble in water.

Water moved up the paper too slowly.

Water reacted with the paper.

Give one safety precaution the student should use when pouring alcohol into a beaker.

Why is the start line drawn in pencil and not in ink?

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A pencil line can be removed after the investigation.

A pencil line will not move up the paper.

The pencil is a different colour from the three inks.

The student used alcohol as the solvent.

Figure 3 shows the results after 10 minutes.

Which ink contained three dyes?

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A B C

In a different investigation, the distance moved by a dye was 2.4 cm.

What was the distance moved by the dye in millimetres?

The distance moved by the solvent was 80 mm.

Calculate the R_f value of the dye.

Use your answer from Question 02.5.

Use the equation:

Unstable isotopes of elements decay by emitting nuclear radiation.

What is the difference between the atoms of isotopes of the same element?

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The number of electrons in an atom

The number of neutrons in an atom

The number of protons in an atom

Draw one line from each type of radiation to the description of the radiation.

A radioactive source emits alpha, beta and gamma radiation.

Which type of radiation from the source can pass through 5 mm of aluminium?

Which type of radiation from the source is stopped by a sheet of paper?

Caesium-137 (Cs) decays into barium-137 (Ba) by emitting beta radiation (β).

Which of the following is the decay equation for caesium-137?

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In 2011, an accident at a nuclear power station caused the release of radioactive elements into the environment.

Two of the radioactive elements released were iodine-131 and xenon-133

Figure 4 shows how the radiation emitted each second changes with time.

How does the half-life of xenon-133 compare with the half-life of iodine-131?

Give a reason for your answer.

Use Figure 4.

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The half-life of xenon-133 is less than the half-life of iodine-131

The half-life of xenon-133 is the same as the half-life of iodine-131

The half-life of xenon-133 is greater than the half-life of iodine-131

In the 2011 accident, the radioactive element caesium-137 was also released into the environment.

The half-life of caesium-137 is 30 years.

Why does the caesium-137 that was released still emit large amounts of radiation in 2025?

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Less than one half-life has occurred since the accident.

Exactly one half-life has occurred since the accident.

More than one half-life has occurred since the accident.

Figure 5 shows a food chain.

What process allows algae to be producers for the food chain?

Adélie penguins are one species of penguin.

Adélie penguins:

feed in the ocean

make nests on the ground using stones.

The amount of snow is an abiotic factor which affects Adélie penguins.

Which are two biotic factors that affect the Adélie penguins?

Tick (✓) two boxes.

A new pathogen

Acidic soil

High light intensity

Lack of food

Low temperature

Figure 6 shows an Adélie penguin on a nest made of stones.

Adélie penguins steal stones from nearby nests to make their own nest higher.

A higher nest gives young penguins a better chance of surviving.

What is stealing stones for nests an example of?

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An ecosystem

Competition

Interdependence

Scientists calculated the mean area covered by one Adélie penguin nest.

The mean area of one nest is 18 000 cm².

Enlarge

An area of 122 400 m² was covered by nests.

Calculate the maximum possible number of nests in an area of 122 400 m².

Use your answer from Question 04.6.

There are many ways of sampling animal and plant populations.

Students sample a plant population.

Which piece of equipment can the students use to sample a plant population?

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A pH meter

A quadrat

A thermometer

Students sometimes use a transect.

When should a transect method be used?

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To investigate feeding relationships

To investigate the distribution of a population

To investigate the oxygen concentration in water

The endocrine system produces hormones.

The pituitary gland is part of the endocrine system.

Where is the pituitary gland?

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In the head

In the heart

In the liver

Oestrogen is a hormone.

Which organ in the female reproductive system produces oestrogen?

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Kidney

Ovary

Stomach

Some chemicals in the environment affect the body in a similar way to hormones.

A scientist investigated the effect of feeding chemical X to rats.

Table 1 shows the results.

The scientist calculated the mean thickness of the uterus lining.

First, the scientist added together the measurements for all the rats in a group.

For the control group, the total was 4500 micrometres.

Calculate how many rats were in the control group.

Use Table 1.

Complete the sentence.

Choose the answer from the box.

The mean thickness of the uterus lining in the two groups in Table 1 was compared.

In rats fed chemical X, the mean thickness of the uterus lining

Some food packaging contains chemical Y.

Chemical Y decreases antibody production in humans.

Food packaging in landfill can release chemical Y into streams, rivers and lakes.

Which are two reasons why food packaging containing chemical Y is a problem?

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Chemical Y could become a fossil fuel.

Chemical Y could contaminate drinking water.

Chemical Y could get into food.

Chemical Y does not dissolve in water.

Chemical Y will be broken down quickly.

Which risk increases when a person produces fewer antibodies?

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Developing Type 1 diabetes

Getting lung cancer due to mutations

Not being able to recover from infections

If a pathogen enters the body, white blood cells can engulf and digest the pathogen.

What is the name of the process where white blood cells engulf and digest a pathogen?

The pathogen is digested by white blood cells.

Which of the following digests large molecules into smaller molecules?

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Carbohydrates

Enzymes

Lipids

Different parts of a plant have different functions.

Draw one line from each part of a plant to the function of that part.

Oranges are grown on farms.

Oranges grow on trees that can become infected with bacteria.

The bacteria enter the trees when an insect feeds on the leaves.

The tree responds to the infection by blocking phloem tissue.

Why does blocking phloem tissue decrease the rate of spread of bacteria in a tree?

Tick (✓) one box.

Blocking phloem increases the rate of photosynthesis.

Blocking phloem reduces the transport of substances in the tree.

Blocking phloem weakens the cell walls of the tree.

What can farmers do to reduce the spread of the bacteria from one tree to another tree?

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Destroy infected orange trees immediately.

Plant infected orange trees closer together.

Transport trees to another orange tree farm.

Wash hands after touching infected orange trees.

Water the infected orange trees more often.

Orange juice contains sugar.

Benedict’s solution is used to test for sugar.

Enlarge

Figure 7 shows some of the equipment used for the Benedict’s test.

Describe a method a student could use to test if a drink contains sugar.

You should refer to the equipment in Figure 7.

Doctors sometimes advise people with kidney disease to eat a diet that is low in protein.

How does a diet that is low in protein help people with kidney disease?

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Fewer amino acids will break down to form urea.

More urea will be produced and excreted in urine.

Protease will be needed to digest the protein into amino acids.

Table 2 shows information about two types of bread.

Compare the mass of each nutrient in wholemeal bread with the mass of each nutrient in low-protein bread.

Use Table 2.

Lipids

One slice of low-protein bread has a mass of 40 g.

Calculate the mass of carbohydrate in the slice of bread.

Use Table 2.

A person eats some bread.

Describe how carbohydrates and lipids from the bread are broken down and used in cells.

You should include:

the enzymes involved

the molecules formed

how the molecules are used in cells.

Control of blood glucose concentration is an example of homeostasis.

Give one other condition that is controlled by homeostasis in humans.

Do not refer to blood glucose concentration in your answer.

Figure 8 shows the blood glucose concentration of a person after eating a meal.

Calculate the increase in blood glucose concentration between 0 minutes and 50 minutes after the meal.

Use Figure 8.

_ Increase = ______________________ arbitrary units

Table 3 shows the blood glucose concentration between 70 minutes and 120 minutes after the meal.

Complete Figure 8.

You should:

plot the data from Table 3

draw a line of best fit between 60 minutes and 120 minutes.

After a meal, the blood glucose concentration increases and then decreases.

Describe how the pancreas causes blood glucose concentration to decrease.

Which substance do animal cells use to store glucose?

Tick (✓) one box.

Cellulose

Glycogen

Lactic acid

Starch

People with Type 2 diabetes often have high blood glucose concentration.

Give two lifestyle changes to treat Type 2 diabetes.

Scientists used alpha particles and gold to develop the atomic model.

A scientist directed alpha particles at thin gold foil.

Table 4 shows information about the direction of the alpha particles after reaching the thin gold foil.

Calculate the percentage of alpha particles that changed direction by more than 90°.

Use Table 4.

Draw one line from each observation to the conclusion that could be made from the observation.

This question is about genetics.

Figure 9 shows two lions.

One lion has brown fur.

One lion has white fur.

White fur colour in lions is caused by a mutation.

How could a mutation cause white fur colour?

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The mutation could cause cells to divide.

The mutation could prevent the growth of cells.

The mutation could stop cells producing a protein.

Lions live in areas of grass.

The dry grass is often brown.

White lions are very rare in the wild.

Explain why natural selection is likely to result in low numbers of white lions in the wild.

The allele for brown fur is dominant.

The allele for white fur is recessive.

A heterozygous male lion and a homozygous recessive female lion produce one offspring.

Determine the probability that the offspring will have white fur.

You should:

complete Figure 10

use the symbols: B = allele for brown fur b = allele for white fur

identify the colour of fur for each offspring genotype

give the probability of the offspring having white fur.