Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Guest]

Eugh! Has anyone got any suggestions for a suitable topic for A level Biology coursework? My son's teacher is giving them no clues at all! It has to be something he can do an investigation and experiments on, with raw materials that we can get our hands on, rather than human blood plasma or something!

[ubereglu]

Hmm, I'm not sure. Could it be based around plants or something?

[bettyhen]

How about the speed of mould growth on different types of bread?

 

(Only thought of that as I`ve just been to get a teacake out of the breadbin,to toast and noticed one or two little spots that shouldn`t be there

 

Sue x

[BeckyBoo]

How about life cycle of a chicken - the perennial question, which came first! Or the manufacturing process of an egg to include different colours, sizes, double yolkers etc - I read about one breed which I have totally forgotten, that "adds the colour" at the last minute so you can rub the tint off the egg!!

 

BeckyBoo

[Chucky Mama]

OH says best project he saw was a friend that built a compost heap. He had little doors at different levels. He took temperature, looked at insect/animal life& population, pH, water content etc etc.

[redhotchick]

I like the sound of the compost heap one.

How about something similar with a couple of wormeries.

Maybe feeding them different things and measuring the output over a period of time.

You can (apparently) make your own wormery.

See wormery topic in "Green Thinking"

[Lewis]

Just a few ideas from what I've seen at school

 

One thing, they got brine shrimp (sea monkeys) and tested different chemicals (nicotine, caffiene and alcohol I think) on them to see how they react, and you can tell by how their feet move - you can do the same with Daphnia as you can see theirs hearts beating; you can buy both from aquarium shops, or hatch the sea monkeys yourself.

 

We had to do how trypsin affcts casein - an enzyme in our stomach and how it digests a protein in milk. Make up different concentrations and see how they react at different tempratures and at what point the enzymes denature. I'm not very good at explaining it, but can scan in a sheet if he wants it

 

Last years A2 did a mini river study and counted the numbers of different species along a stream. You can also do the same in fields using quadrats, count insect and plant species down a hill, and how shaded the spot is, etc.

 

 

At our school we all have to do the same experiment which is set by the exam board and then they give us an exam on it afterwards

[Guest]

Many thanks! Some fabulous ideas there. He is having a look at them to decide. I KNEW Omleteers would come up trumps!

[Alis girls]

We chopped and dissected things when I was at school - very smelly it was too. Dogfish, frogs, worms - all very gross. The life cycle of a chuck is a good suggestion

[craftyhunnypie]

We did lots of tests with iodine & plants. Testing for starch through photosynthesis.

One plant was kept in the dark, one in full sun, one had some blacked out leaves... & so on.

We also did lots of coursework at A level - based around what could be found round the seashore - in the rock pools, in the dunes, on the wet slack - once the tide had gone out. It was great fun! I think we looked at a lot of ecosystems etc.

 

Good luck!

[Karen & co.]

ES is off tomorrow to do some quadrant work on various beaches on Anglesey looking at ecosystems

 

Karen x