HSC Biology Question Thread

[pikachu975]

Could anyone offer a summary of the different types of bio options? Our school usually does communication but our teacher is willing to change it seeing as it's the final year and he really likes the genetics option (which he said was like an extension of the things we did in year 10, like dihybrid). Which topics are more conceptual and which ones are more equation-y?

None of them are really equation-y because it's biology, but I'd DEFINITELY recommend communication. It's so interesting to learn, and you can relate it to real life which helps with on-the-go study such as when you see the colour red "my red cones are being stimulated" etc while you can't really relate genetics to everyday life. Also it's interesting to learn how you see and hear etc.

[Diala]

Hi! I'm super confused about a Communication dotpoint because I'm receive 2 different answers. In the textbook it says that when detecting yellow light the blue and green cones are responding, however, websites and pictures depict red and green cones responding to interpret yellow. Which is correct?

[Opengangs]

Genetics is such a good topic to learn, because a lot of what is assessed in Genetics has already been highlighted in Blueprint of Life. You learn about protein synthesis in more depth, you learn about the role of introns and exons in establishing fingerprinting and VNTR in DNA fingerprinting, and why they are important to establishing a unique fingerprint.

It's such an interesting topic, because of how you can apply this to the Blueprint of Life topic, which already allows you to further your understanding of the Blueprint of Life topic, so I highly recommend you being taught by your school.

[Daniyahasan]

Hi! I'm super confused about a Communication dotpoint because I'm receive 2 different answers. In the textbook it says that when detecting yellow light the blue and green cones are responding, however, websites and pictures depict red and green cones responding to interpret yellow. Which is correct?

i dont think its THAT important to know that, because we werent really taught that at school...but i may be wrong

[inescelic]

Wow thank you so much! So clear and concise, love it

Hi!

- Light/Sight (Occipital Lobe)
            - Visual cortex: Where signals are sent from the retina via the optic nerve to the brain
            - Visual association area: Processes and interprets visual information)
- Sound (Temporal Lobe)
            - Auditory area:  Where signals are sent from the hair cells in the organ of Corti via the auditory nerve to the brain
            - Auditory association area:  Processes and interprets auditory information
- Speech:
            - Wernicke's Area: Sensory speech
            - Broca's Area: Motor speech

(Image removed from quote.)

Hope this helps

[inescelic]

Hi, could someone please mark and give me feedback on this question?
Q: "Gregor Mendel revealed the world of genetics to future biologists". Using your knowledge of the HSC Biology course, discuss the contribution of Mendel in relation to the development of our understanding of inheritance and modern genetics". (7 marks)
Mendel's investigations using pea plants have grown our understanding of genetics, contributing to future developments. In his experiment, Mendel first established pure breeding lines of tall and short pea plants. He then cross bred the tall and short and recorded the height of the plants. He had found that they were all tall. Again, he crossbred the offspring of the first generation and found that 75% of the offspring were tall, while 25% were short. From this, Mendel inferred that individual held two variants ( now called alleles) of a characteristic (now called a gene), and that each allele was provided by each parent.
In addition, he also established that certain alleles were dominant over others. This means that if at least one dominant allele was present in a genotype, it would be reflected in the phenotype. Recessive genes on the other hand, mean that both alleles need to be present in the genotype for it to be expressed in the phenotype. This dominance was demonstrated through the tall plants in Mendel's experiments, for both Tt and TT plants were tall, hence tall is dominant, while recessive alleles were shown through the short plants (tt), hence short is recessive.
Importantly, Mendel's work on alleles and dominance in inheritance has led to new developments. Firstly, Sutton and Boveri's work on sea urchins and grasshoppers elaborated upon Mendel's ideas, suggesting that chromosomes were the carriers of hereditary information, or as described by Mendel, "characteristics". Furthermore, more work into alleles has revealed different types of dominance. For example, Morgan's work on fruit flies, demonstrated "sex-linked" traits, where certain traits were more dominant depending on sex, such as if they only appeared on the X chromosome. Also, later work also revealed more complex forms of dominance such as co-dominance, in which both alleles are expressed in the phenotype.
More currently, Mendel's work has led to methods such as DNA hybridisation within a species. Individuals within species, who have desirable characteristics e.g. Labrador and Poodle, are bred so that offspring (Labradoodle) possess a favourable combination of characteristics from each parent. This stems from Mendel's findings, as he established that we receive an allele from each parent. Hence, this process relies upon the offspring inheriting the desirable traits from their parents.
Thus, Mendel's work has increased our understanding of inheritance, including alleles, genes and dominance, leading to many further developments.

Thank you!

[Mathew587]

Hi, could someone please mark and give me feedback on this question?
Q: "Gregor Mendel revealed the world of genetics to future biologists". Using your knowledge of the HSC Biology course, discuss the contribution of Mendel in relation to the development of our understanding of inheritance and modern genetics". (7 marks)
Mendel's investigations using pea plants have grown our understanding of genetics, contributing to future developments. In his experiment, Mendel first established pure breeding lines of tall and short pea plants. He then cross bred the tall and short and recorded the height of the plants. He had found that they were all tall. Again, he crossbred the offspring of the first generation and found that 75% of the offspring were tall, while 25% were short. From this, Mendel inferred that individual held two variants ( now called alleles) of a characteristic (now called a gene), and that each allele was provided by each parent.
In addition, he also established that certain alleles were dominant over others. This means that if at least one dominant allele was present in a genotype, it would be reflected in the phenotype. Recessive genes on the other hand, mean that both alleles need to be present in the genotype for it to be expressed in the phenotype. This dominance was demonstrated through the tall plants in Mendel's experiments, for both Tt and TT plants were tall, hence tall is dominant, while recessive alleles were shown through the short plants (tt), hence short is recessive.
Importantly, Mendel's work on alleles and dominance in inheritance has led to new developments. Firstly, Sutton and Boveri's work on sea urchins and grasshoppers elaborated upon Mendel's ideas, suggesting that chromosomes were the carriers of hereditary information, or as described by Mendel, "characteristics". Furthermore, more work into alleles has revealed different types of dominance. For example, Morgan's work on fruit flies, demonstrated "sex-linked" traits, where certain traits were more dominant depending on sex, such as if they only appeared on the X chromosome. Also, later work also revealed more complex forms of dominance such as co-dominance, in which both alleles are expressed in the phenotype.
More currently, Mendel's work has led to methods such as DNA hybridisation within a species. Individuals within species, who have desirable characteristics e.g. Labrador and Poodle, are bred so that offspring (Labradoodle) possess a favourable combination of characteristics from each parent. This stems from Mendel's findings, as he established that we receive an allele from each parent. Hence, this process relies upon the offspring inheriting the desirable traits from their parents.
Thus, Mendel's work has increased our understanding of inheritance, including alleles, genes and dominance, leading to many further developments.

Thank you!

sounds pretty good but can't give a mark without a guideline

[justwannawish]

Genetics is such a good topic to learn, because a lot of what is assessed in Genetics has already been highlighted in Blueprint of Life. You learn about protein synthesis in more depth, you learn about the role of introns and exons in establishing fingerprinting and VNTR in DNA fingerprinting, and why they are important to establishing a unique fingerprint.

It's such an interesting topic, because of how you can apply this to the Blueprint of Life topic, which already allows you to further your understanding of the Blueprint of Life topic, so I highly recommend you being taught by your school.

None of them are really equation-y because it's biology, but I'd DEFINITELY recommend communication. It's so interesting to learn, and you can relate it to real life which helps with on-the-go study such as when you see the colour red "my red cones are being stimulated" etc while you can't really relate genetics to everyday life. Also it's interesting to learn how you see and hear etc.

Thank you for your advice. Both of them sound really interesting but I work better with things I can see and observe in front of me, so I might vote for communication haha. Our school has done it for a while so I feel like they'd teach it better too
Is communication a very content heavy topic? Is it likely to have a 8 mark question because they sound quite frightening to me? Any tips of how to tackle such questions

[Opengangs]

Thank you for your advice. Both of them sound really interesting but I work better with things I can see and observe in front of me, so I might vote for communication haha. Our school has done it for a while so I feel like they'd teach it better too
Is communication a very content heavy topic? Is it likely to have a 8 mark question because they sound quite frightening to me? Any tips of how to tackle such questions

From memory, I believe that every option topic will have the extended response at the end.

[Daniyahasan]

Thank you for your advice. Both of them sound really interesting but I work better with things I can see and observe in front of me, so I might vote for communication haha. Our school has done it for a while so I feel like they'd teach it better too
Is communication a very content heavy topic? Is it likely to have a 8 mark question because they sound quite frightening to me? Any tips of how to tackle such questions

Communications is VERY content heavy let me tell you. Theres SOO much memorising and i kind of hate it. I agree its interesting but its a bit much. If i had a choice i definatley wouldnt choose it tbh. Im not saying its a shit topic or anything, but it just ddnt work for me :/
and yeah the do have the 8 markers which are usually about cochlear implants and hearing aid which is okay
but i hate the brain and nurones part eeekkkkkkk
plus notes are quite hard to find too, but iv done my notes so maybe ill upload them later if anyone wants:)
Good luck!

[Daniyahasan]

From memory, I believe that every option topic will have the extended response at the end.

Thats right, all the options have some sort of extended response included:)

[justwannawish]

From memory, I believe that every option topic will have the extended response at the end.

Communications is VERY content heavy let me tell you. Theres SOO much memorising and i kind of hate it. I agree its interesting but its a bit much. If i had a choice i definatley wouldnt choose it tbh. Im not saying its a shit topic or anything, but it just ddnt work for me :/
and yeah the do have the 8 markers which are usually about cochlear implants and hearing aid which is okay
but i hate the brain and nurones part eeekkkkkkk
plus notes are quite hard to find too, but iv done my notes so maybe ill upload them later if anyone wants:)
Good luck!

Thank you! I'll see what the rest of the cohort chooses and we'll go from there I guess

[pikachu975]

Thank you for your advice. Both of them sound really interesting but I work better with things I can see and observe in front of me, so I might vote for communication haha. Our school has done it for a while so I feel like they'd teach it better too
Is communication a very content heavy topic? Is it likely to have a 8 mark question because they sound quite frightening to me? Any tips of how to tackle such questions

Communication might have a lot of content but it's easier to remember by a lot. Me and my friends randomly make communication jokes in the playground which helped us remember it. For example we see the green grass "ahh my green cones are being stimulated" or seeing a far object "my lens is thin" etc which essentially reduced the content to memorise by A LOT.

It's all up to the individual so just go with what you are interested in

[bridie_2345]

Hi there I was wondering if HBOCs (haemoglobin based oxygen carriers)
are sterile/physiologically inert?

[Daniyahasan]

Hi there I was wondering if HBOCs (haemoglobin based oxygen carriers)
are sterile/physiologically inert?

isnt HBOC artifical blood? if it is then yes its sterile
but if it isnt then idk sorry