IB Biology DNA and Protein Synthesis Pub Quiz

What it covers

IB Biology at SL, with HL cards when you switch the level: D1.1 DNA replication, D1.2 Protein synthesis, D1.3 Mutation and gene editing and D2.2 Gene expression.

The running order

nine rounds and a handout of riddles. Review rounds are drawn from these topics 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. DNA has 4 bases and proteins use 20 amino acids. Why can't codons be just two bases long?
3. Insert 1 base, delete 2 bases, insert 3 bases, delete 4 bases: which is the odd one out, leaving the reading frame intact?
4. Mice given a jellyfish gene for a fluorescent protein glow green. Which feature of the genetic code makes this possible?
5. Why does a one-base insertion near the start of a gene usually do more harm than one near the end?
6. A DNA template strand reads ATTGCC. What base sequence will the new strand built against it have?

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. Three letters on one end, an amino acid on the other: I ferry my cargo to the ribosome and match it to the message. What am I?
3. Add or lose a single letter and every codon after me is read out of step. What am I?
4. 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?
5. I'm three bases long, one word in the messenger's sentence, and I spell out a single amino acid. 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
4. Copying a gene's base sequence into RNA
5. Enzyme that builds mRNA along a gene
6. DNA chain that mRNA is complementary to
7. Any change to the base sequence of DNA
8. One nucleotide swapped for another