Biology  by Bradford
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IB Biology A1.2 Pub Quiz: Nucleic acids

A1.2 as a pub quiz for your class: review rounds on this subtopic, mixed with pure-fun rounds so it feels like a night out and not another test. Opens at SL; switch to HL in the builder to add the higher level cards.

Print teacher pagesPrint student pagesOpen in the builder to change it

Teacher pages are the quizmaster script and tally sheet. Student pages are the team answer sheet, handout and picture sheet. Both open ready to print, on A4 or US Letter.

What it covers

IB Biology at SL, with HL cards when you switch the level: A1.2 Nucleic acids.

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. True or false: some viruses keep their genes as RNA, so DNA is not the genetic material of all living organisms. Explain.
  2. Heat a DNA molecule and its two strands come apart, yet each strand stays in one piece. Why?
  3. One strand of DNA has the bases A, T, T, G, C. Which bases sit opposite them on the other strand?
  4. A forensic lab finds a DNA sample is 30% adenine. What percentage of its bases are guanine?
  5. Ribose, uracil, a single strand, thymine: which is the odd one out, and why?
  6. A–T pairs are held by two hydrogen bonds and G–C pairs by three. Which needs a higher temperature to separate: DNA that is 70% G–C or 70% A–T?
Answers
  1. False (viruses are not considered living, so all living organisms still use DNA)
  2. The backbone is covalent (strong sugar–phosphate bonds; the strands are held together only by weaker hydrogen bonds)
  3. T, A, A, C, G (A pairs with T and G with C)
  4. 20% (thymine is also 30%, leaving 40% shared equally between guanine and cytosine)
  5. Thymine (it is found only in DNA; the other three are features of RNA)
  6. 70% G–C (it has more hydrogen bonds to break between the strands)

Riddle me this

Course terms as riddles. Teams write what it is.

  1. I'm a phosphate, a sugar and a base, joined as one. String thousands of me together and you get a gene. What am I?
  2. I'm a five-carbon sugar missing one atom that my RNA cousin keeps, and my name owns up to it. You'll find me in your genes, never in RNA. What am I?
  3. DNA never invites me; RNA seats me where thymine would sit. I still pair with adenine. What am I?
  4. My two strands run side by side but head in opposite directions, like the two carriageways of a motorway. What am I?
  5. I'm the strong covalent spine of every DNA strand, with the bases sticking out from me like ribs. What am I?
Answers
  1. Nucleotide
  2. Deoxyribose
  3. Uracil
  4. Antiparallel
  5. Sugar–phosphate backbone

Quickfire

Short recall from the same topics.

  1. Genetic material of all living organisms
  2. Nucleic acid usually single-stranded
  3. Monomer of DNA and RNA
Answers
  1. DNA
  2. RNA
  3. Nucleotide

How it runs

  1. Open it in the builder. The running order loads ready to go. Swap, add or drop rounds, or draw a round's questions again.
  2. Present it or print it. Present puts each round on the projector in 16:9 with quizmaster notes. Print gives the script, team answer sheets, a picture sheet and a tally sheet on A4 or US Letter, with no projector needed.
  3. Score it. Teams swap sheets, mark, and each plays one joker to double a round. The scores page reveals the leaderboard from last place up.

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