B1: Cell level systems – GCSE OCR Foundation Biology revision notes

What this topic covers

B1: Cell level systems has 4 subtopics:

• B1.1 Cell structures
• B1.2 What happens in cells (and what do cells need)?
• B1.3 Respiration
• B1.4 Photosynthesis

B1: Cell level systems lessons by subtopic

24 lessons, grouped by subtopic.

B1.1 Cell structures

• Understanding Cell Types: Eukaryotes vs Prokaryotes: Students will explore the key differences between eukaryotic cells (plant and animal cells) and prokaryotic cells (bacterial cells), comparing their structures, size, and how genetic material is organized in each type.
• Comparing Animal and Plant Cell Structures: Explore the key organelles found in animal cells including the nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane, mitochondria and ribosomes. Compare these with plant cells which contain additional structures like chloroplasts, permanent vacuole and cell wall.
• Structure and Function Relationships in Cells: Understand how the structure of key organelles relates to their function, including nucleus, cell membranes, mitochondria and chloroplasts. Learn to estimate and compare the relative sizes of sub-cellular structures.
• Development of Microscopy Techniques: Explore how microscopy techniques have evolved over time and understand the advantages of electron microscopy over light microscopy in revealing sub-cellular structures.
• Magnification Calculations: Learn to calculate magnification, real size and image size using the magnification formula, including expressing answers in standard form.

B1.2 What happens in cells (and what do cells need)?

• From Cells to Organisms: Understand how cells form the building blocks of life and how they are organised into tissues, organs, organ systems and complete organisms. Explore the hierarchy of biological organisation from the smallest units to complex multicellular organisms.
• The digestive system and enzymes: Understanding how the digestive system works as an organ system, the nature of enzymes and how they catalyse reactions using the lock and key model
• Digestive enzymes and their actions: Learning about the different types of digestive enzymes, where they are produced, what they break down and how their products are used in the body
• The role of bile in digestion: Understanding how bile is produced, stored and used to help digest fats by neutralising acid and emulsifying lipids
• DNA Structure and the Genome: Learn about the structure of DNA as a double helix polymer, how genes code for proteins, and understand what the genome is and its importance for medicine.
• Applications of Genome Research: Explore how understanding the human genome is used to search for disease genes, understand inherited disorders, and trace human migration patterns throughout history.

B1.3 Respiration

• Introduction to Cellular Respiration: Learn what cellular respiration is, why organisms need energy, and understand the key characteristics of this vital process including its exothermic nature and continuous occurrence in living cells.
• Aerobic Respiration: Explore aerobic respiration in detail, including the word equation and chemical symbols, and understand how oxygen is used to completely break down glucose for maximum energy transfer.
• Anaerobic Respiration and Fermentation: Compare anaerobic respiration to aerobic respiration, learn the equations for anaerobic respiration in muscles and yeast cells, and discover the economic importance of fermentation.
• How the Body Responds to Exercise: Learn how the human body reacts to increased energy demands during exercise, including changes to heart rate, breathing rate and breath volume to supply muscles with more oxygenated blood.
• Anaerobic Respiration and Recovery: Understand what happens when insufficient oxygen is supplied during exercise, including anaerobic respiration, lactic acid buildup, oxygen debt, muscle fatigue, and how the body recovers after exercise.
• What is Metabolism?: Understanding metabolism as the sum of all reactions in cells and how respiration provides energy for metabolic processes.
• Building Large Molecules from Small Ones: How glucose is converted to starch, glycogen and cellulose, and how lipids and proteins are synthesised from smaller molecules.
• Breaking Down Molecules and Building Blocks: The breakdown of excess proteins to form urea and understanding the importance of building blocks in synthesis and breakdown of biological molecules.

B1.4 Photosynthesis

• The Photosynthesis Equation and Chemical Symbols: Learn the word equation for photosynthesis, understand the chemical symbols CO2, H2O, O2 and C6H12O6, and explore how photosynthesis is an endothermic reaction that transfers energy from light to chloroplasts.
• Measuring and Graphing Photosynthesis Rates: Learn how to measure photosynthesis rates, interpret and create graphs, and understand the key factors that affect photosynthesis speed including temperature, light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration, and chlorophyll amount.
• Limiting Factors in Photosynthesis (Higher Tier): Explore how multiple factors interact to limit photosynthesis, analyze complex graphs with multiple variables, understand the inverse square law with light intensity, and examine the economics of optimizing greenhouse conditions for maximum photosynthesis rates.
• How Plants Use Glucose for Energy and Storage: Explore how plants use glucose produced in photosynthesis for immediate energy through respiration and long-term storage as starch and oils, understanding the importance of these processes for plant survival.
• Building Plant Structures with Glucose: Discover how plants convert glucose into cellulose for strengthening cell walls and amino acids for protein synthesis, including the role of nitrate ions from soil in protein production.

More in this course

Go back to the full GCSE OCR Foundation Biology topic list, or practise this topic with past-paper questions.