Biology  by Bradford
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IB Biology Theme D Pub Quiz: Continuity and change

Theme D as a pub quiz for your class: review rounds on these subtopics, 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: D1.1 DNA replication, D1.2 Protein synthesis, D1.3 Mutation and gene editing, D2.1 Cell and nuclear division, D2.2 Gene expression, D2.3 Water potential, D3.1 Reproduction, D3.2 Inheritance, D3.3 Homeostasis, D4.1 Natural selection, D4.2 Stability and change and D4.3 Climate change.

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. Why can't a plant cell split its cytoplasm by pinching in, the way an animal cell does?
  5. A red blood cell is dropped into pure water. What happens, and why?
  6. Aphids reproduce asexually all summer, then switch to sexual reproduction in autumn. Why switch as conditions change?
Answers
  1. Semi-conservative replication (each molecule keeps one old ¹⁵N strand and gains one new ¹⁴N strand)
  2. Too few combinations (two bases give 16; three give 64)
  3. Insert 3 bases (a whole codon; the others shift every codon after them)
  4. Its rigid cell wall (vesicles build a new membrane and wall across the middle instead)
  5. It swells and bursts (water enters by osmosis and no wall holds it back)
  6. Variation (new allele combinations help offspring adapt to a changing environment)

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. In animals I pinch with a ring of actin and myosin; in plants I build a wall down the middle. What am I?
  5. I'm what happens when a plant cell loses so much water that its membrane peels away from its wall. What am I?
Answers
  1. Helicase
  2. tRNA (transfer RNA)
  3. A frameshift mutation
  4. Cytokinesis
  5. Plasmolysis

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
Answers
  1. DNA replication
  2. Semi-conservative
  3. Complementary base pairing
  4. Transcription
  5. RNA polymerase
  6. Template strand
  7. Mutation
  8. Base substitution

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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