IB Biology C1.3 Pub Quiz: Photosynthesis

What it covers

IB Biology at SL, with HL cards when you switch the level: C1.3 Photosynthesis.

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. In 1941, algae were given water labelled with heavy oxygen (¹⁸O). Where did the heavy oxygen turn up?
2. About 2.4 billion years ago, oxygen began building up in Earth's air for the first time. Which organisms released it, and by what process?
3. I'm the colour a leaf throws back at you. Why do you see me, and not red or blue?
4. In 1882 Engelmann lit a strand of alga with a spectrum of colours. Oxygen-seeking bacteria crowded at two places along it. Under which colours?
5. An action spectrum shows photosynthesis at some wavelengths that chlorophyll absorbs poorly. What absorbs that light?
6. On a chromatogram a pigment moves 4.5 cm while the solvent front moves 9.0 cm. What is the pigment's Rf value?

Riddle me this

Course terms as riddles. Teams write what it is.

1. I soak up red and blue light but throw back the green, which is why every leaf wears my colour. What am I?
2. I'm a ratio: how far a pigment climbed, divided by how far the solvent went. What am I?
3. I'm a graph of how fast photosynthesis goes in each colour of light. My twin shows only what a pigment absorbs. What am I?
4. I'm whatever is in shortest supply. Raise anything else and the rate stays put; raise me and photosynthesis speeds up. What am I?
5. Paper, a solvent and a dab of crushed leaf: I pull its pigments apart into coloured bands. What am I?

Quickfire

Short recall from the same topics.

1. Green pigment absorbing red and blue light
2. Method separating leaf pigments
3. Spot distance ÷ solvent front distance