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Science · Grade 9

Biological Questions, Safety and Evidence

Learners turn observations of living things into testable questions, hypotheses and predictions, and learn what observational and experimental evidence can each show. They plan safe and ethical biology work, design controlled experiments that allow for biological variability, analyse data with means, ranges and percentage change, and use microscope calculations to measure cells.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 minutes
  • Biological evidence check: 11 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, estimate, highlight a text, match pairs, type a number and put in order
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What learners will discover

  • Distinguish observations, testable questions, hypotheses and predictions, and explain what observational studies and controlled experiments can and cannot show about cause and effect.
  • Apply risk assessment, biosafety and ethical principles (the hierarchy of controls, safe microbiology practice, the 3Rs and informed consent) to plan biological work.
  • Design a controlled biological experiment with a clear independent and dependent variable, controlled variables, a control group, replication and randomisation.
  • Analyse biological data using means, ranges and percentage change, distinguish percentage points from percent change, and judge whether a difference is convincing given variability.
  • Calculate total magnification, field-of-view diameter, estimated cell size and actual size from an image, converting between millimetres and micrometres.

Lessons

  1. From observation to testable question 8 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  2. Working safely and ethically with living things 8 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  3. Designing a controlled biology experiment 8 steps4 practiceabout 24 min
  4. Analysing biological data 8 steps5 practiceabout 24 min
  5. Microscopy: measuring the very small 9 steps6 practiceabout 23 min
  6. Biological evidence check 11 questions at the end

Keep exploring

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Guide for grown-ups