IB Biology D1.1 Pub Quiz: DNA replication

What it covers

IB Biology at SL, with HL cards when you switch the level: D1.1 DNA replication.

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. Bacteria grown for generations on heavy ¹⁵N are moved to light ¹⁴N and divide once. Why is all their DNA now of intermediate density?
2. A DNA template strand reads ATTGCC. What base sequence will the new strand built against it have?
3. True or false: if one strand of a DNA molecule were destroyed, the cell could rebuild it exactly from the other strand.
4. A drug blocks helicase. Why can DNA polymerase then copy nothing at all?
5. A mutant cell makes working helicase but no working DNA polymerase. How far does replication get?
6. Primers, Taq polymerase, helicase, free nucleotides: which is the odd one out, never added to a PCR tube, and why?

Riddle me this

Course terms as riddles. Teams write what it is.

1. I race ahead of the copying crew, unzipping the twisted ladder and snapping the hydrogen bonds between its rungs. What am I?
2. Give me a template and a pile of nucleotides and I'll link them into a brand new strand. Copying is my whole career. What am I?
3. Every copy I make is half heirloom, half brand new: one strand from the parent, one freshly built. What am I?
4. Hot, cool, warm, repeat. Thirty laps of me turn one molecule into a billion. What am I?
5. I make DNA race through a slab of jelly towards the positive end, and the little ones always win. What am I?

Quickfire

Short recall from the same topics.

1. Copying DNA before a cell divides
2. Each new DNA molecule keeps one old strand
3. A pairs with T, C pairs with G