Practical Resources

We have a wide range of resources to help you with your core practical skills throughout the course, but it’s a good idea to have a better handle on what the different resources can do for you.

The papers labelled on Canvas as ‘Student Activity’ with a number after them are the original resources provided by our exam board, Salters Nuffield, or SNAB. These are the papers that students in a classroom environment would probably be using, and when you do your practical endorsement, you’ll probably be using something like this as well. It’s really important to read through these even if you can’t actually complete them at home - remember you may be asked to suggest an experiment method in one of your exams.

There are also similar looking resources which are from the Edexcel International course; these won’t be available for all the practicals, but where they are relevant, we’ve included them because they investigate a slightly different but related aspect of the topic. These are often the teacher’s copies, because they’ll usually have advice on what to look out for that you will find useful, especially as you won’t often have a chance to do these practicals in real life.

Remember: you won’t be asked to repeat what you’ve read on the SNAB papers verbatim, but (like all of the questions) to apply what you’ve studied to slightly new situations. Knowing a couple of different situations is a good idea so you have a wide range of information to dip into, but if you find the volume of information overwhelming, feel free to miss these out.

Any papers marked ‘Student Guidance’ and with the Wolsey Hall logo on were written as modified versions of the practicals which have been simplified to allow you to actually carry them out at home with minimal equipment. If you can have a go at these, they might give you some good experience, but these student guidance sheets are essential if you want to try these out for yourself!

Module Two

Download Practical 1.1 The Effect of Caffeine on Heart Rate

Download Practical 1.2 The Vitimin C Content of Fruit Juice

Download HSW Activity 1.3 Links Between Lifestyle Factors and Heart Disease

Module Three

Download Practical 2.1 The Effect of Temperature on Membranes

Download Practical 2.2 Enzyme Concentration and Rate of Reaction

Module Five

Download Practical 3.1 Observing Mitosis

Module Six

Download Practical 3.2 Totipotency and Plant Tissue Culture

Module Eight

Download Practical 4.1 The Strength of Plant Fibres

Download Practical 4.2 Investigating Plant Mineral Deficiencies

Download Practical 4.3 The Antimicrobial Properties of Plants

Module Nine

Download Practical 5.1 Looking for Patterns

Download Practical Support Sheet Ecological Sampling

Module Ten

Download Practical 5.2 The Effect of Temperature on the Hatching Success of Brine Shrimps

Module Eleven

Download Practical 6.1 DNA Gel Electrophoresis

Download Practical 6.2 DNA Amplification Using PCR

Module Twelve

Download Practical 6.3 Which Antibiotic is Most Effective

Module Thirteen

Download Practical 7.1 Measuring the Rate of Oxygen Uptake

Module Fourteen

Download Practical 7.2 Investigating Breathing

Module Sixteen

Download Practical 8.1 Can Snails Become Habituated to a Stimulus