IB Biology Energy and Metabolism Pub Quiz

What it covers

IB Biology at SL, with HL cards when you switch the level: C1.1 Enzymes and metabolism, C1.2 Cell respiration and C1.3 Photosynthesis.

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. A spoonful of glucose sits unchanged in a jar for years, yet your cells break glucose down within seconds at 37 °C. What makes the difference?
2. Your red blood cells have no mitochondria. Which type of cell respiration keeps them supplied with ATP?
3. In 1941, algae were given water labelled with heavy oxygen (¹⁸O). Where did the heavy oxygen turn up?
4. A human cell runs thousands of different chemical reactions. Why does it need thousands of different enzymes, not a few all-purpose ones?
5. In the last 100 m of a 400 m race, a runner's leg muscles run short of oxygen. Which waste product builds up in them?
6. Odd one out: digesting starch, building glycogen from glucose, breaking down glucose in respiration. Which is it, and why?

Riddle me this

Course terms as riddles. Teams write what it is.

1. I'm the pocket where the work gets done, built from only a few amino acids. Only the right shape gets through my door. What am I?
2. I'm a nucleotide with a tail of three. Snap off the end one and I pay for a job; put it back and I'm ready again. What am I?
3. I soak up red and blue light but throw back the green, which is why every leaf wears my colour. What am I?
4. Too much heat or the wrong pH and my enzyme loses its shape for good. Its pocket fits nothing any more, and there's no going back. What am I?
5. I'm the cell's energy currency after it has paid for a job, one group lighter. Recharge me in respiration and I'm good as new. What am I?

Quickfire

Short recall from the same topics.

1. All the chemical reactions in an organism
2. Half of metabolism that builds molecules
3. Half of metabolism that breaks molecules
4. Cell's immediate source of usable energy
5. What ATP becomes after losing a phosphate
6. Splitting ATP using a water molecule
7. Green pigment absorbing red and blue light
8. Method separating leaf pigments