IB Biology A1.1 Pub Quiz: Water

What it covers

IB Biology at SL, with HL cards when you switch the level: A1.1 Water.

The running order

nine rounds and a handout of riddles. Review rounds are drawn from this topic each time you open the quiz, so two classes never get the same paper, and every review round can be redrawn in a click.

1. Riddle me this review
   Course terms as riddles: "I have a head that loves water and two tails that hate it…" Teams write what it is.
2. Close-up fun
   A tiny zoomed-in patch. What's the full picture?
3. Fact or fiction fun
   Myths and true-but-weird facts. Teams write Fact or Fiction.
4. Think it through review
   Scenarios, odd ones out, true or false and why, puzzles: questions to reason through. Give teams a little longer.
5. Films in science-speak fun
   A film plot, described like a research abstract. Name the film.
6. Who am I? Scientists fun
   Three clues, hardest first. 3 points after clue 1, 2 after clue 2, 1 after clue 3.
7. Missing vowels: course terms review
   Your key terms with the vowels taken out.
8. Funny animal noises fun
   YouTube clips of animals making ridiculous noises. Screen off, listen, guess, then watch the reveal.
9. Closest wins fun
   Estimation questions. Nearest team wins the point. Doubles as the tiebreaker.

A taste of the questions

Think it through

Scenarios, odd ones out and true or false and why, from IB Biology.

1. A dry seed can sit in a packet for years, then sprouts within a day or two of being watered. Why does nothing happen until the water arrives?
2. True or false: water is a liquid at room temperature while methane is a gas because water molecules are much heavier. Explain.
3. I let a pond skater stroll across a pond without breaking through. I'm made by water molecules clinging tightly to each other. What am I?
4. What would happen to water transport in a 50 m tree if water molecules did not cling to each other?
5. A gardener waters a pot only by filling the tray it stands in, yet the soil at the top soon turns damp. How does the water get up there?
6. Why can blood plasma carry glucose, salts and amino acids around the body in solution?

Riddle me this

Course terms as riddles. Teams write what it is.

1. I'm the weak pull between one water molecule's slightly positive end and the next one's slightly negative oxygen. Alone I'm feeble; by the billion I make water sticky. What am I?
2. I'm water molecules hanging on to each other. I hold a tree's thread of water together as it's hauled to the top leaves. What am I?
3. I'm water clinging to other things: glass, soil, a cell wall. Team me up with my sticky sibling and water climbs narrow tubes. What am I?
4. It takes a lot of energy to warm me up or cool me down, so a pond's temperature barely budges from day to night. What am I?
5. I push up on everything in water, so a seal can rest without sinking. Archimedes shouted about me in his bath. What am I?

Quickfire

Short recall from the same topics.

1. Unequal sharing of electrons between atoms
2. Pull of δ⁻ O on δ⁺ H of another molecule
3. Water molecules sticking to each other