These seven questions ramp from naming to explaining to reading data. Write your answer on paper first, then open the explanation.
They cover the topic support, movement and growth. The timed original practice session builder can run them against the clock.
Questions 1 to 4: support and movement
Question 1. State one function of a skeleton in a human and one in a plant stem.
Answer
In a human, the skeleton supports the body and protects organs, for example the ribs protect the heart and lungs. In a plant stem, the supporting tissue holds leaves up to the light.
Give one function for each, not two for the same one.
Question 2. An earthworm has no bones, yet it can move along the soil. Explain what supports its body and how it moves, using muscles.
Answer
Its body is held firm by fluid pressure inside its body, which works as a fluid skeleton. Muscles squeeze this fluid so the body lengthens or shortens. The worm moves forward as sections stretch and then contract in turn.
A weak answer only says “it has muscles”. The marks are for the fluid that gives support and the muscles that act on it.
Question 3. When you bend your elbow, the biceps contracts and the triceps relaxes. Explain why muscles work in pairs.
Answer
A muscle can only pull when it contracts; it cannot push. So one muscle bends the joint and a second muscle pulls it back. The biceps bends the arm while the triceps relaxes, and the triceps straightens the arm while the biceps relaxes.
Question 4. A student says a ligament joins muscle to bone. Correct this and state the real job of a ligament.
Answer
A tendon joins muscle to bone. A ligament joins bone to bone at a joint and holds the joint together.
The mistake is swapping the two names, so link each name to what it connects.
Questions 5 to 7: growth and plant support
Question 5. The average height of a chilli plant is 4 cm on day 0, 8 cm on day 10, 17 cm on day 20, 29 cm on day 30 and 34 cm on day 40. Find the interval with the fastest growth.
Answer
The increases are 4, 9, 12 and 5 cm. The largest is 12 cm, so growth is fastest between day 20 and day 30. The tallest reading, 34 cm on day 40, is not the answer, because the question asks about growth rate.
Question 6. Two groups of ten seedlings were grown for 30 days. Group A sat by a window and grew to an average of 18 cm. Group B was kept in a dark cupboard and grew to 26 cm.
A student concludes that darkness makes seedlings healthier. Give one reason the conclusion is unsafe and one thing to record.
Answer
Height alone does not show health. Seedlings grown in the dark are tall and thin because they stretch to find light, so a greater height is not a sign of healthy growth. Also, the two groups differ in more than light unless water and soil were the same.
Record leaf colour or leaf number as well as height, and state the assumption that water, soil and temperature were kept the same.
Question 7. A shoot of spinach droops after a day without watering, then recovers after watering. Explain the change, and then explain why a tree trunk does not droop in the same way.
Answer
Without water, the cells lose water and turgor pressure falls, so the soft stem and leaves cannot stay firm and they droop. After watering, the cells fill again and the pressure pushes the walls outward, so the shoot becomes firm.
A tree trunk contains wood: xylem with thick walls strengthened by lignin. Its rigidity does not depend on water pressure alone, so it stays upright.
If you got these wrong
- Questions 1 to 4: revisit comparing support systems and explaining muscle and joint roles.
- Questions 5 and 6: read interpreting growth curves.
- Question 7: read relating plant support structures to function.
Record each slip in the mistake log and paper-error review. For a teacher to read your written answers, see online one-to-one Science tuition.