s4 Biology End of Units Questions and Answers
s4 Biology End of Units Questions and Answers
Unit 1.BIODIVERSITY
Introductory activity: Biodiversity of Rwanda
Read the following text and discuss the questions that follows
Rwanda is located at the heart of the Albertine Rift eco-region in the western arm of the Africa’s Rift
Valley. Habitats of Rwanda are equally varied, ranging from Afro-Montana ecosystems in the northern
and western regions to lowland forests, savannah woodlands and savannah grasslands in the southern
and eastern regions. There are other habitats around volcanic hot springs and old lava flows, especially
in the northern and western part of the country. Rwanda also has several lakes and wetlands which are
rich in different species. Though not yet well surveyed, all these ecosystems host a rich variety of fauna
and flora and micro-organisms. This rich biodiversity is mainly conserved in protected areas including
three national parks, natural forests and wetlands. These cover almost 10 percent of the national territory
while the rest of the country is densely populated (416 people per square kilometer in 2012).
Many tourists visit Rwanda for its beautiful environment and biodiversity made of different species of
plants and animals such as Aloe vera (Igikakarubamba), Muringa oleifera (Muringa), Phaseolus
vulgaris (common bean), Nymphaea thermaru (Endemic plant species that cannot be met elsewhere in
the world, only found in Mashyuza Natural Forest harbors), Colobus polykoma (White-black colobus
monkey), Gorilla gorilla (mountain gorilla) bird Laniarius mufumbiri (Bird species mainly found in
Rweru- Mugera wetland),etc.
The most attracting species in Rwanda is Gorilla gorilla whose habitat is the mountains of
Birunga where they make a large population. Another natural forest, Nyugwe National Park
is a terrestrial ecosystem that contains a large community of different plants and animals.
Rwanda also has different lakes such as Muhazi and Rumira. They are aquatic ecosystems
made of few species of fish, such as tilapias. Tilapias from Lake Muhazi are small, black and
bony fish while those from Lake Rumira look red, big and soft. Tilapias from both lakes still
belong in the same species but show variations.
Many species of animals and plants have been discovered in Rwanda but some species also
disappeared. Today the big garden snails known as Achatina achatina become rare in
Bugesera. Some people use mosquito nets to fish and this reduces the number of fishes. Other
people poached Rhinoceros alba living in Savanah of Akagera National Park.
Honey bees, butterflies and grasshoppers are small in size but still important for different
ecosystem services. Each organism is important for its niche in ecosystem. We need to identify
the biodiversity of our ecosystem. Many tourists enjoy visiting Rwanda for its biodiversity.
1) From the text above, name the interested species not found elsewhere that attract the
tourists and locate where it is found?
2) Mashyuza is one of Natural Forest making biodiversity of Rwanda give any two other
3) Define each of the following biological terms and give an example from the text
above:(a) Species (b) Population (c) Community (d) Habitat (e) Ecosystem (f)
Variation (g) Niche
4) What causes some species to disappear?
5) What can be the consequences of the loss of some species from our biodiversity?
6) Do you support the tourism in Rwanda?
Activity 1.1
Use the books from the school library and search further information on the internet. Answer the
following questions:
1) What do you understand by the following terms: biodiversity, species, niche,population, and
community?
ANSWERS
Activity 1.2
Use books from the school library and search further information from the internet. Use the
findings
of your research to discuss and to answer the followings:
1) Discuss the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Rwanda.
2) What kinds of initiatives and incentive mechanisms put in place by the Government of
BIOLOGY QUESTIONS S4 2023-2024 PREPARED BY VEDASTE BIMENYIMANA Page 3
Rwanda to motivate local community biodiversity conservation?
3) Discuss different ways used for biodiversity identification.
4) Discuss the contribution of biodiversity to human well-being.
1) Values of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the country and the region.
- Natural ecosystems and their biodiversity constitute our natural capital. Thus, Rwandan economic
prosperity will depend on how we maintain and enhance our assets, including natural capital.
Ecosystem services and economic benefit is of great importance to boost the national economy.
- Many governments consider tourism as a source of income, poverty alleviation and employment.
Rwanda is one of the countries whose tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors and has shown
significant potential for future growth. Rwanda's tourism industry accounts for a significant portion
of foreign revenue.
- The natural ecosystems in Rwanda contribute to the water for household’s consumption, local,
regional and international water bodies.
- The whole complex constitutes an important fishing area, with high catch yield, in lakes Ihema,
Rwanyakizinga, Mihindi, Nasho, Cyambwe and Rwampanga, plus other marshland products.
- The extensive wetlands play an important hydrological role (fresh water, fresh air, climate
mitigation) of the Akagera /Nile system and contribute to water cycle and the reduction of water loss
by evaporation.
2) Hospital and School building
- Provision of health insurance to people from local communities.
- Continuous mobilization about the necessity of biodiversity conservation
- Develop television shows and other public media (Radio, Social media, Newspapers, etc.) to
communicate biodiversity conservation messages
- Promote Environmental Education activities in schools to reach more people with biodiversity
conservation messages.
3) Different ways of biodiversity identification.
Biodiversity can be categorized into three groups including genetic, species and ecological
diversity. Genetic diversity is the combination of different genes found within a population of a
single species, and the pattern of variation found within different populations of the same species.
Species diversity is the variety and abundance of different types of organisms which inhabit an area.
The variety of habitats that occur within a region, or within the mosaic of patches found within a
landscape constitute an ecosystem diversity.
4) Contribution of biodiversity to human well-being.
- Good human health and productive livelihoods depend on ecosystem products and services, such as
availability of fresh air, fresh water, food, fuel sources, etc...
Self-assessment 1.2
Activity 1.3
A survey on tree species was conducted in Gako forest by a group of students. Five tree species
BIOLOGY QUESTIONS S4 2023-2024 PREPARED BY VEDASTE BIMENYIMANA Page 6
(A to E) were identified and counted. The numbers found during this exercise are summarized
in the following table:
1) The number of species E is less compared to other species though they share the same
sources. Discuss the main causes of this differences.
2) Basing on the data in the above table, suggest how species diversity of tree species can be
calculated.
D = 1-0.360256=0.639744
Diversity is medium because the value 0.639744 is within between 0 and 1
Self-assessment 1.3
1) Explain the difference between species richness and species evenness
2) Suggest what precautions you may need to take when measuring populations of aquatic
animals or plants.
3) Explain why a habitat with high diversity tends to be more stable than one with lower
diversity.
4) In a survey of trees in a tropical forest, students identified five tree species (A to E).
They counted the numbers of trees in an area 100 m × 100 m and found these results:
Activity 1.4
From your school garden, sample different flowering plant species and answer the following
questions:
1) Specify the techniques used for collecting flowers of different species.
2) What are the advantages of the technique you used for data collection?
3) Did you use a random sampling?
a) If yes, why did you choose it over other sampling techniques?
b) If no, describe the technique you used and specify its advantages over the random sampling.
4) Move around the school garden and collect different specimens of plant species. Name the
collected
species by using their names or letters A, B, C … in case you don’t know their names. Calculate
Simpson index D, Simpson index of diversity and Simpson reciprocal index.
5) Make a 1 dm2 quadrat selected randomly in the school garden. Count the number of each
species of
plants within the surface of your quadrat. Calculate the Simpson diversity index.
6) Using a sweep net and collect the specimens of arthropods. Count the number of each species
of arthropods collected. From the collected specimens calculate the Simpson's Diversity Index
.
6) The formula is D =1-Σ (n/N) 2 where (n) is the number of individuals in each species collected and
(N) is the total number of all species individuals collected.
Self-assessment 1.4
1) Explain the advantages of the random sampling techniques.
2) Use suitable methods, such as frame quadrats, line transects, and belt transects, to assess
the distribution and abundance of insect species in a school garden. Record your data
and use the Simpson index of diversity (D) to calculate the diversity of collected insects.
3) Suggest the benefits of using the following sampling techniques:
a) Quadrats
b) Transect
c) Mark-capture-recapture
4) State the conditions in which quadrats, transect and mark recapture are suitable sampling
methods
(i) Quadrats:
- These techniques are simple.
(ii) Transect:
- This is simple technique.
- It may be applied to sample different areas of ecosystem
- This technique indicates change in land as well as organism abundance.
b) Expected answers:
- Quadrats are used when the organisms to be sampled are immobile.
- Transect technique is used when change over time of topography from the air under the see is
measured.
- Mark and recapture technique is used when to count first moving animas difficult to
see
Activity 1.5
Some of the following figures indicate a positive, negative or non-correlation.
- Conclusion about the results when there is no correlation: There is no pattern to the points. This
means correlation coefficient of 0.
Self-assessment 1.5
Use Spearman’s rank correlation and Pearson’s linear correlation to analyze the relationships
between the distribution and abundance of species and abiotic or biotic factors.
a) Use Excel sheet to draw the curve of number of fish captured against time
b) Discuss the best time of capturing fish?
6) Describe how diversity is threatened by climate change and human activities.
7) What do you understand by endangered species? Describe one of them.
4) Formula: D =1-Σ(n/N) 2
D=1-0.236978= 0.76
So, Diversity is lower because the value is nearby 1 .
5) Answer:
a) The following is the graph
Answer: Biodiversity contributes to ecosystem goods and services. The ecosystem goods and
services include:
- Provisioning services (provision of food, air, fire wood, medicines, energy, fresh water…),
- Regulating services (climate regulation, water purification, waste treatment, natural hazard…),
- Supporting services (nutrient cycling, primary production…) and
- Cultural or aesthetic services (recreation, ecotourism…).
3) The value of Simpson' index D ranges between ...... and.......
Answer: The value of this index also ranges between 0 and 1
4) During field activity, name the possible sampling methods you can use?
Answer: Random sampling method, Quadrat sampling method, Frame quadrats, transect sampling,
Belt transects method, Netting, The mark-release-recapture technique.
5) When Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient is used?
Answer: When the graph of results shows that the data are correlated, but not in a linear fashion.
1.9.2 Consolidation activities
1) Why population is different from community
Answer: Because population is a group of individuals of the same species and community is a group
of different population
2) Observe the following figure and try to give its name, its contribution in diseases.Treatment
Answer: The formula is used when calculating the Simpson index of biodiversity, where (n) is a
number of individuals in each species and (N) is the total number of individuals in all species. The
value of D ranges between 0 and 1
4) What do you think is an advantage of using line transect sampling technique?
Answer:
- It can be used to sample different areas of the ecosystem.
- Shows change in land and organism abundance
5) Observe the figure below and try to write the one which positive, negative and no correlation
Answer:
Answer: Increased heat of the Earth’s surface affects biodiversity. It leads to the death of various
microorganisms, animal and plant species which failed to adapt to the new conditions. The following
are some of the likely impacts of climate change on biodiversity:
- The climate change will have differential effects on species. Some species will migrate through
fragmented landscapes whilst others may not be able to do so.
- Many species that are already vulnerable are likely to become extinct.
- Changes in the frequency, intensity, extent, and locations of climatically and no climatically
induced disturbances will affect how and at what rate the existing ecosystems will be replaced by
new plant and animal assemblages.
- Loss or fragmentation of forest habitat due to climate change is a major threat to
biodiversity.
- Climate change negatively affects crop production and cause vulnerable people to depend mostly on
ecosystem services.
- Climate change negatively impacts water bodies by increasing or dropping water levels.
3) In a survey of trees in a dry tropical forest, some students identified five tree species (A to E).
They counted the numbers of trees in an area 100 m × 100 m with these results
Questions
a) What characteristics did you use to sort them out?
b) Based on your groups, which fruits are most closely related?
Activity 2.1
You are provided with cards written on a list of words such as continent, district, country, cell,
province, sector, village and family. Discuss and answer the following questions.
1) Arrange the following words in the order of size
2) Analyse the levels and identify which level has the highest and the least number of people
3) Which one is the largest and which one is the smallest? Why?
4) What is your opinion about the people of the same family and those in the all country?
5) Compare your arrangement above with 8 groups of the biological taxonomic hierarchy.
Organisms of the same species resemble one another and more to that are far fewer in number than
those in a domain.
As there are many countries in a continent, as it is case with a domain, which can be made up of
many kingdoms e.g. domain Eukarya.
Self-assessment 2.1
1) An African bush elephant belongs to order Proboscidae and family Elephantae. Its
scientific name is Loxodonta africana.
a) Make a table indicating the hierarchy classification of African bush elephant
b) Use the examples from table 2.1 to explain the tem “taxon”
c) Indicate how classification of living things is hierarchical.
2) Classify each of the following organisms under the following kingdom, phylum and
class taxa: honey bee, cockroach, maize, and spider.
3) How are living organisms organized for study purpose?
4) Describe the system of naming species that Linnaeus developed.
3) Biologists use a classification system to name organisms with a universally accepted name. They
also group organisms in a logical manner. Here, organisms placed into particular groups are more
similar to one another than they are to organisms in other groups.For each species is assigned a two
part scientific name in what is termed as binomial nomenclature.
Domain Archaea
- Cells with no membrane-bound organelles
- DNA exists in circular chromosome and does not have histone proteins associated with it
- Smaller circular molecules of DNA called plasmids are often present
- Ribosome are smaller than in eukaryotic cells, but they have features that are similar to those in
eukaryotic ribosome, not to bacterial ribosome
- Cell wall always presents, but does not contain peptidoglycans.
Domain Eukarya
Their characteristic features are:
- Cells with a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles
- DNA in the nucleus arranged as linear chromosomes with histone proteins
- Ribosome’s in the cytosol are larger than in prokaryotes, while chloroplasts and mitochondria have
ribosome, like those in prokaryotes.
- Chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA is circular as in prokaryotes
- A great diversity of forms: unicellular, colonial and multicellular organisms
- Cell division is by mitosis
Self-assessment 2.2
1) What are the three domains of living things?
2) Discuss the ways in which a domain differs from a kingdom?
3) It is confirmed that: “Some bacteria can survive in extreme temperatures such as hot
springs”. Justify this statement.
4) How is the information about evolutionary or phylogenetic relationships useful in
classification of the living things?
5) What gene indicates that yeasts and humans share a common ancestor?
- However, some can inhabit anaerobic habitats and give off methane as a product of their
metabolism. They live in guts of cattle and are responsible for intestinal gases. These are referred to
as methanogenic Archaeabacteria.
- Some are halophilic archaeabacteria and they live in very salty conditions such salt flats. They can
grow in salt concentrations approaching saturation.
- Because they tolerate extreme conditions similar to those that are thought to have existed at the
dawn of life, Archaea are believed to have been the first forms of life on earth.
4) Organisms are placed in various taxonomic groups basing on evolutionary descent. Scientists
compare the DNA of different organisms to establish similarities between them and reconstruct
possible evolutionary relationship.
5) A gene that codes for a protein.
Activity 2.3.1
1) Collect organisms from a habitat near your school including a housefly, spider, frog,
gecko, bean/maize plant, moulds/mushroom, spirogyra (algae) and a hen.
2) If any of the organisms are small rapidly moving land animals such as insects,
anaesthetise them by placing them in an ether/ethanol bottle for few seconds.
3) Examine each organism, using a hand lens or a microscope if necessary.
4) Using a table identify the kingdom to which each organism belongs. State the
characteristic features that you have based on to classify.
Answers for learning activity2.3
Characteristics of animals
- Multicellular eukaryotes with many different types of specialized cells
- Cells that are differentiated to form tissues and organs
- Cells do not have chloroplasts and cannot photosynthesize (although some, such as coral polyps
have photosynthetic protoctists living within their tissues)
- Eukaryotic organisms.
- Mostly single-celled, or exist as groups of similar cells
- Some have animal-like cells (no cell wall) and are sometimes known as protozoa
- They feed by both autotrophic nutrition like algae and heterotrophic nutrition such as protozoa.
4) Protists are both unicellular such as protozoa and multicellular such as algae
5) The following are the answers:
b) Maize and frog because maize has chlorophyll and cell wall while in a frog they are absent.
c) Mays represent a species.
d) A species is the smallest group of classification where organisms resemble one another and they
are capable of interbreeding together to produce viable offspring.
6) Plants have cells with chloroplasts that contain chlorophyll thus are autotrophs while members of
fungi do not have chloroplasts and they feed heterotrophically ie are saprophytes.
7) Kingdom monera includes only prokaryotes while kingdom fungi and plantae include only
heterotrophs
Activity 2.4
“Bacteria are both useful and harmful to humans”. Discuss the validity of the statement.
Answers for learning activity 2.4
Bacteria are useful in the following ways: in biotechnology, genetic engineering, decomposition,
fiber retting, nitrogen fixation, digestion, biological control. However, some bacteria are harmful to
humans in the following ways:
- Saprotrophic bacteria attack and food spoilage.
- Some bacteria are causal agents of different diseases to animals and to human beings.
- Such bacteria include; Vibrion cholerae, Shigella bacterium, Salmonella typhus, Bacillus etc. They
cause diseases such as cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, typhoid etc.
a) Pathogenic bacteria damage the cells and tissues of the host organism directly by breaking down
the cells for food. Other pathogenic bacteria produce toxins (poison) that move throughout the body
killing body cells thus interfering with normal functioning of the body.
b) There are three main ways in which bacteria can spoil our food.
- They release enzymes into the food and absorb the nutrients released by breakdown of food
molecules. The food will eventually be reduced to a mush by the action of enzymes.
- Some bacteria produce a toxin called botulin for example Clostridium botulinum. If these bacteria
are growing on food, the toxin will strongly damage food and finally spoil it.
- The presence of pathogenic bacteria in food can cause infection, for example, salmonella bacteria
sometimes present in poultry products attack the lining of the stomach.
Activity 2.5
Suppose there is cholera outbreak in your village and the executive secretary invited you to
sensitize people about preventive measures against cholera. Prepare a brief presentation for this
purpose and include causes, mode of transmission and then preventive measures
Answers for learning activity 2.5
Cholera is caused by bacteria called Vibrion cholerae (comma shaped bacterium). Transmission is
mainly by eating food and drinking water contaminated by cholera germs in faeces by houseflies
- Prevention and control the following measures can be ensured in order to prevent cholera
outbreak;
- Sensitization of the public and sanitation and personal hygiene.
- Proper food preparation for example washing hands and fruits before eating them.
- Food and drinks should be covered properly to reduce contamination.
- Unclean water should be treated with chlorine to make it safe for drinking.
- Proper boiling of water for drinking.
- Vaccination to give active artificial immunity for at least one year.
- Killing vectors like house flies with insectides to break their life cycle.
- Isolate the cholera patients to reduce the transmission of the disease.
- Avoid urinating and defecating in water bodies.
- Treatment of sewage anaerobically using anaerobic bacteria and fungi.
Self-assessment 2.5
Mr. Green lives in one of the slums in a certain city. He prepares and sells chapattis on street. He
is usually very clean, but one morning, he is late for work so he does not bother to wash his
hands after visiting the toilet. That day he prepares 400 chapattis all of which are sold. Few hours
later, his customer Sandra suffered from a disease with the following signs and symptoms:
severe diarrhea, excessive loss of water leading to dehydration, and vomiting, after five days.
Later, all his customers were rushed and admitted in hospital due to the same problem.
1) Suggest the disease that Mr. Green’s customers were suffering from and what caused the
disease?
2) Name three other ways this disease might be spread around city.
3) After reading this scenario, what message do you have for people who are like Mr. Green?
4) Suppose you were the health officer for the area in town with such a problem. What steps
would you take to prevent the disease from spreading further?
4) I can advise people of the affected area and the neighborhood to ensure the following measures:
- Educate the public to ensure personal hygiene for example washing hands after visiting the toilet.
- Wash hands and fruits before eating.
- Food and drinks should be covered properly to reduce contamination.
- Unclean water should be treated with chlorine to make it safe for drinking.
- Drink boiled or treated water
- Killing vectors like house flies with insectides to break their life cycle.
- Isolate the cholera patients to reduce the transmission of the disease.
- Avoid urinating and defecating in water bodies.
- Treatment of sewage anaerobically using anaerobic bacteria.
- Proper food preparation
5) Houseflies visit contaminated/ dirty places such as toilets or faeces, pick bacteria (germs) and
deposit them into food. When we eat such contaminated food, we can suffer from diseases .
Activity 2.7
Discuss the reasons why viruses are not classified in any of the five kingdoms of living
organisms.
Answers for learning activity 2.7.1
Self-assessment 2.7
1) What is meant by the term virus?
2) What are the parts of a virus?
12) A group of S4 students drew a Venn diagram below to summarize the five kingdoms into
which organisms are classified. Study the diagram and answer the questions that follow:
14) Bacteria are both useful and harmful to humans. They are beneficial to humans in the following
ways:
- Biotechnology; Bacteria are used in biotechnology for example in the manufacturing industries.
They are used to manufacture products such as ethanol, acetone, organic acid, enzymes, and
perfumes;
- Genetic engineering; Bactria are used in genetic engineering through the manipulation of genes,
also called recombinant DNA technology for example, production of human insulin used against
diabetes.
- Decomposition: Bacteria are important in decomposition of dead organisms and animal wastes such
as feces to form organic matter. .
- Fiber retting; some bacteria including Clostridium butyricum are used to separate fibers in process
called retting. In this process, fibres are formed to make ropes and sacks.
- Nitrogen fixation; some other bacteria are used to fix nitrogen in form of nitrates into the soil. For
example, Rhizobium bacteria which live in root nodules of leguminous plants.
- Digestion; Some bacteria living in the gut of ruminant animals such as cattle, horses and other
herbivores secrete cellulase, an enzyme that helps in the digestion of the cellulose of plant cell walls.
- Biological control; some bacteria are used as biological agents in biological pest control such as
Bacillus thuringiensis (also called BT) instead of pesticides.
- However, some bacteria are harmful to humans in the following ways;
- Some bacteria are causal agents of different diseases to animals and to human beings. Such bacteria
include; Vibrion cholerae, Shigella bacterium, Salmonella typhus, Bacillus etc. They cause diseases
such as cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, typhoid etc.
15) Significance of classification;
- To identify living organisms and place them into their correct groups basing on their observable
characteristics.
- To understand the evolutionary relationship between different organisms.
- To arrange information about living organisms in order, for easy study purposes.
- To enable biologists to identify characteristics of organisms.
- To put organisms into small manageable groups basing on their similarities for easy studypurpose.
16) Classification of a blue monkey.
4) Because there rapid growth of bacteria that accumulate in food remains between teeth and its outer
surface, leading to production of more acid. The accumulation of the acid eats up the enamel of the
teeth thus tooth decay.
5) Retrovirus.
6) Before starting to collect specimens for practical purposes, the following precautions must be put
in considerations:
- Care must be taken while collecting and handling some organisms because some are poisonous,
have thorns and others are able to sting.
- Be aware that some animals are dangerous (harmful) to humans. Some can bite such as snakes,
sting such as bees, others have poisonous glands such as toad and other animals like fish have fins for
piercing.
- Avoid and try to minimize where possible, uprooting, cutting down or plucking and pruning of
plants as this may threaten the biodiversity as well as result into environmental degradation.
Consolidation activities
1) Copy and complete the table for classification of a housefly and its scientific name.
2) Answers:
a) Saprophytically, by digesting their food extracellularly and absorbing digested products.
b) Cell walls in fungi contain chitin while in plants contain cellulose.
3) It is defined as a flexible rod running along the back.
4) Fins of cartilaginous fish are fleshy whereas fins of bony fish are supported by fin rays
5) Immunisable viral diseases include; measles and poliomyelitis while non immunisable disease is
HIV/ AIDS.
6) If you are classifying leaves, you must consider the following observable features; In case of
simple leaves, you can classify them basing on;
- Nature of apex: is the apex pointed or curved.
- Nature of margin: observe whether the margin is serrated, toothed, curved, smooth or entire.
- Nature of lamina: is the lamina smooth, rough, hairy or thorny.
- Nature of venation; either parallel or network venation and for network venation, consider their
types.
- Nature of petiole; it may either be short or long, hollow or not hollow, hairy.
In case of compound leaves, you can consider the type basing on the number and form of leaflets
present for example trifoliate with three leaflets, compound palmate, pinnate, bipinnate or the
arrangement of leaflets on a leaf.
Extension activities
1) The table provided below represents different phyla and characteristics of each phylum of
kingdom protoctista. Copy and complete by giving one example of each.
5) Yes, because the biochemistry of bacteria and archaea is different. Their biochemistry reveals that
the metabolism of archaeans is similar to that of bacteria, but the way in which transcription occurs
has much in common with eukaryotes. More to that, archaeans have cell wall, but does not contain
peptidoglycans. In conclusion, many exist in extreme environments such as volcanic hot springs and
too much salty water bodies.
8) The skills can help me to observe and record characteristic features of a new discovered organism
and use them to clearly classify it, following the taxonomic hierarchy.
Activity 3.1
Some of the living things including protoctista and fungi have small size to be observed
by naked eyes. Discuss the ways used by biologists to observe and identify different
parts of these living organisms.
Activity 3.1.2
Using the light microscope.
a) To observe under low power and low magnification, proceed as follows:
- Objects (specimens) to be observed under the microscope are first placed on a glass slide
and covered with a cover slip.
- Place the specimen on the stage of your microscope, in other words, arrange it so that the
specimen is exactly at the center of the hole at the stage.
- Fix the slide in place with two clips.
- Rotate the nosepiece so that small objective lens is immediately above the specimen.
- Set the angle of the reflector mirror so that light is directed up through the microscope.
Self-assessment 3.1
1) Complete the table below:
2) The light microscope is important because they allow scientists to study microorganisms, cells,
(and their contents), genes, crystalline structures and molecular structures. Microscopes are one of
the most important diagnostic tools when doctors examine tissue samples.
3) Help and follow how the learner apply microscope technique rules.
Activity 3.2
Work out the following measurements:
1) 1 millimetre (mm)=........... metre (m)
2) 1micrometre (μm)=.............. metre (m)
3) 1 nanometre (nm) =....................metre (m)
4) 1 metre (m) = .............mm=.......... μm =........nm,
5) 1 kilometre (km) = .............m
Self-assessment 3.2.
1) Calculate the magnification of an image measuring 50mm, while the object measures
5μm.
2) If a nucleus measures 100mm on a diagram, with a magnification of X10 000, what is
the actual size of the nucleus?
Answers for self-assessment. 3.2.
1) Magnification= size of the image / size of object
The size of the image should be converted to μm: Size of image =50mm=50000μm
Therefore, magnification =50000 /5=10000
Conversely, if the magnification is 50000 times, and the size of the image is 5mm (5000 μm), the
actual size of the object is: size of image/magnification=5000/50000=0.1 μm
2) 100/10000=0.01 mm (observed size divided by magnification)
This can be converted to μm by multiplying by 1000
0.01mm=10 μm, or it can be calculated as 100mm x1000 μm
Actual size =100 000/10 000 μm=10 μm
Activity 3.3
Use the books from the school library and search further information from the internet. Discuss
Light microscope has a higher resolution and is therefore able of a higher magnification estimated at
up to 2 million times compared to the light microscope which can show a useful magnification only
up to 1000-2000 times. These differences are due to a physical limit imposed by the wavelengths of
the light. Electron microscopes therefore allow for the visualization of structures that would normally
be not visible by optical microscopy.
Depending on the type of electron microscope different observation can be processed. For example,
for a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen
to form an image of the specimen which is most often an ultrathin section less than 100nm thick or a
suspension on a grid, while the scanning electron microscope (SEM) produces images of a sample by
scanning the surface with a focusedbean of electrons. The SEM has a resolution power of about 5
nm higher than that of a light microscope but lower than that of a TEM.
Activity 3.4
Use books from the school library and search further information from the internet. Discuss
the difference between transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron
microscope (SEM)
Answer for activity 3.4.
- Learners may provide different answers like lightmicroscope uses light to illuminate specimens
and glass lenses to magnify images, an electronmicroscope uses a beam of electrons to illuminate
specimens and magnetic lenses to magnify images. The resolution (the level of image detailing) is
the main differencebetween these two microscopes.
Self-assessment 3.4
1) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the types of electron microscopes in
medicine and biology research.
2) Many hospitals in Rwanda use light microscope instead of electron microscope.
Discuss the credibility of the results found by the end of the study.
3) Make a comparative study between light and electron microscope focussing on the
advantages of each type of microscope.
It is not possible to view any living material by using electron microscope due to vacuum inside
electron microscope and living specimens cannot be viewed because electron microscopes require a
vacuum in the tube - otherwise the electrons would be absorbed by air molecules
2) The energy of the electron beam is very high, the sample is therefore exposed to high radiation,
and therefore not able to live. It is large and heavy, so are not easier to move and set-up and it is very
expensive.
3) Comparative study between light and electron microscope focussing on the advantages of each
type of microscope.
- Both light and electron microscopes form larger (magnified) and more detailed (highly resolved)
images of small objects or small areas of larger objects
- Both light and electron microscopes are used in study and research in biology and medical sciences
particularly histology, material sciences such as metallurgy and other aspects of science.
- Specimens must be carefully prepared using techniques appropriate for both the equipment and the
sample including slicing, staining, and mounting.
End of unit assessment 3
Section A. Multiple choice questions
1) Which size ranges can be viewed using a light microscope?
a) 4 only
b) 1 and 2 only
c) 2 and 3 only
d) 3 and 4 only
2) The diagram bellow shows a mitochondrion drawn from an electron
micrograph. Observe the graph and the questions that follow.
If the length of the mitochondrion from X to Y is 3000 nm. What is the magnification of the
drawing of the mitochondrion?
a) ×100
b) ×1000
c) ×10 000
d) ×100 000
3) A light microscope is used to observe two membranes that are 200 nm apart.
How far apart are the membranes when the objective lens is changed from low power (×40)
to high power (×400)?
BIOLOGY QUESTIONS S4 2023-2024 PREPARED BY VEDASTE BIMENYIMANA Page 38
a) 2 μm
b) 20 μm
c) 200 nm
d) 2000 nm
4) The electron micrograph below is that of a chloroplast.
The length of the chloroplast along the line shown is 80 mm. The actual length of the
chloroplast is 10 μm. What is the magnification of the chloroplast?
a) ×8 × 102
b) ×8 × 103
c) ×8 × 104
d) ×8 × 106
5) The diagram below is drawn from an electron micrograph of an animal cell.
Which represents the same cell, seen under a light microscope at ×400 magnification?
c) Magnification refers to the enlargement of the object being studied, while resolution power of a
microscope is the ability to distinguish between two points as separate.
a) Light microscope works because light goes through your specimen. So if the specimen is too thick,
then light won't shine through, and you won't see anything so cutting specimen must be done to make
it thinner.
b) Using biological stains such as methylene blue, it is possible to clearly observe and differentiate
the different parts of a cell. This is because the stain will color some parts of the cell and not others,
allowing them to be clearly observed.
By observing the diagrams on the chart, we see that the two cell are different basing on their
structures:
6) The rough endoplasmic reticulum transport proteins made on attached ribosomes, while the
smooth ER does not have ribosomes, and it involves in making lipids that the cell needs.
7) The role of cytoskeleton is to help the cell to maintain its shape, and it is also involved in cell
movement.
8) The expected answers are:
a) This organelle is mitochondrion
b) The function of this organelle is that a mitochondrion is the site where Adenosine triphosphate
(ATP: a universal energy carrier) is produced during cell respiration.
Activity 4.3
Students discuss the structure of plasma membranes using micrographs and animations and
relate their components to their functions.
Answers to the activity 4.3:
The main features of the fluid mosaic model are:
12) The advantage to have a division of labour between different cells in the body will allow the
organism to perform all biological processes to keep it healthy.
13) In Biology, Cell fractionation is the process used to separate cellular components while
preserving individual functions of each component. In This process: you take some cells, throw them
in a blender, and then centrifuge them to separate the organelles.
14) The freeze-fracture technique consists of physically breaking apart (fracturing) a frozen
biological sample; structural detail exposed by the fracture plane is then visualized by vacuum-
deposition of platinum-carbon to make a replica for examination in the transmission electron
microscope. This technique used to look at membranes that reveal the pattern of integral membrane
proteins.
4.9 Additional activities
4.9.1 Remedial Activities:
1) On your choice, list and give the functions of two organelles from animal cell and plant cell.
2) What is the adaptations of chloroplast for its function?
3) State the general function of the glycoproteins and glycolipids.
4) Which among prokaryote and eukaryote is more complex?
5) Explain how a sperm cell is adapted to fertilise the egg.
4) Compare a prokaryotic cell to a eukaryotic plant cells considering the presence of the cell wall.
5) What are the adaptations of red blood cell for its function?
Answers to consolidation activities:
1) The nucleus: controls all activities of the cell, and ER: rough ER transports proteins made on
attached ribosomes, while smooth ER does not have ribosomes, and it involves in making lipids that
the cell needs.
2) His idea is wrong. Lysosomes are very important as they contain powerful digestive enzymes
which can break down materials, and destroy invalid microorganisms. In acrosome, lysosomes help
the sperm to penetrate the egg by breaking down the material surrounding the egg.
3) A cell membrane should be permeable in order to allow some materials to move through it.
4) Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic plant cell have the cell wall surrounding their plasma membranes.
5) Adaptations of red blood cell for its function are: having Haemoglobin to fixe oxygen,
lacking some organelles including the nucleus for providing big space for haemoglobin, having
biconcave shape to facilitate diffusion of gases, they are numerous.
4.9.3 Extended activities
1) Talk about Robert Hooke contribution on cell discovery.
2) How is a cell like a factory?
3) How the structure of the nuclear membrane enables it to carry out its function controlling what
enters and leaves the nucleus?
4) Observe the figure below and answer to questions:
- The structure observed is looking as a house wall made by small similar units having nucleus and
cytoplasm.
- Those units together form the structure above known as a tissue.
Activity 5.1.1
The figure 5.2 represents the flow chart of subdivisions of plant tissues. Draw and interpret
the flow chart, and use it to answer the following questions.
3) How the structure of Parenchyma Xylem tissues are suitable to their functions.
- Their cells lack cytoplasm
- Absence of nucleus
- The cells are rectangular and closely packed with no intercellular air spaces.
7) Expected answers are:
- A is sieve tube and B is companion cells
Activity 5.2.2
Blood group test
Materials:
Sterilized needles, cotton wool, tooth pick, glass slides, ethanol and blood group reagents anti-
A, anti-B, anti – AB and anti-D (Anti-Rhesus)
Procedure:
- Make groups of 6 students each and distribute the above material.
- Each cleans the end of one’s finger using oat imbibed of ethanol and bites the sterilized
needle to get drops of blood. Caution: the needle should not be shared or exchanged.
- Each presses a drop of blood on four different glass slides.
- Add on the first slide two drops of antibody-A, on the second anti-B, on the third anti-
AB and on the last anti-D.
- Stir separately the mixtures using separate tooth stick. Then wait for 1 minute to observe
the reaction. Caution: The sticks should not be interchanged.
a) Describe your observation on each slide
b) What is your blood group? Give explanation to your conclusion.
Answers for Self-assessment5.2.2
Experimental activity 5.2
Make sure that the necessary requirements for experimental activity to be done are available and
distributed in respective groups. Provide the written protocol (written on chalk board or printed
protocol paper if possible). The possible blood groups are A, B, AB and O
Self-assessment 5.3
1) Answer by true or false
a) Organic chemicals are often very complex and always contain the element carbon
only.
b) A tissue is a group of cells with similar structure and function.
c) Integumentary organ system plays the role in protection of the human body from
injury and fluid loss.
d) An organ system is a group of organs that all contribute to a particular function.
2) Explain why the cell as level of organization of human body is said to be:
a) Basic unit of human body
While,
Introductory activity
You are given solutions containing different biological molecules including carbohydrates,
lipids, proteins and vitamins. How can you differentiate these solutions?
Self-assessment 6.1
A student prepared carbohydrate solution labeled C1, perform the following experiment to
confirm whether C1 is starch, reducing sugar, or non-reducing sugar.
Activity 6.3
Laboratory experiments
Use olive oil to carry out the following experiments
To 2 cm3of olive oil in the test tube:
- Add 5 cm3of ethanol followed by 5 drops of water.
- Shake the mixture and record your observation.
To another test tube containing 2 cm3of olive oil:
- add 5 drops of Sudan III solution
- Shake thoroughly and examine the mixture in the test tube after few minute and record your
Observations
Self-assessment 6.3
You are provided with a solution X. Use Sudan III indicator to test the presence of lipids in
the solution X.
Answers for self-assessment 6.3
- You can use Ethanol: Emulsion test
- The observation: Ethanol changes from colourless to milky
- You can use the Sudan III
- Formation of layer having a red-orange colour sitting on top of water will be observed.
- In the absence of those observation there is no presence of lipids in solid X.
Activity 6.4
Squeeze the orange fruits to extract the juice and carry out the following test.
Experiment Observation conclusion
- To 3cm3of DCPIP add drops of
juice extracted from orange fruit
- Note the observation and draw a
conclusion
- To 2cm3of water add 2cm3of DCPIP
- Note the observation and draw a
Conclusion
Which of the two solutions give a positive solution for DCPIP?
Answers for activity6.4
The expected observations and conclusions are given in the table below.
Experiment Observation Conclusion
To 3cm3of DCPIP add The solution decolorize of Presence of Vitamin C
drops of juice extracted DCPIP blue colour
from orange fruit
To 2cm3of water add No change Absence of vitamin C
2cm3of DCPIP
Vitamin C is tested by using DCPIP (Dichlophenol indophenol), vitamin C decolorize DCPIP if there is
not the presence of Vitamin C the blue color of DCPIP persist.
Self-assessment 6.4
You are provided with a tomato fruits; press it to get the juice. Use this juice to carry out the
test for vitamin C (plot a table for the procedure, observation and conclusion).
Answers for Self-assessment 6.4
Procedures Observation conclusion
Take a sample of The juice decolorize the blue In the tomato juice there is
juice(1cm3) color of DCPIP presence of Vitamin C
Add the juice in a test tube
containing DCPIP.
End of unit assessment 6
1) Biological molecules are divided into:
2) Answer:
- Reducing sugar and non-Reducing sugar together with starch are carbohydrates.
- The test for non-reducing sugar is the test for carbohydrates.
- First of all, we test for the presence of Starch using Iodine solution
- Second we hydrolyse the sample using dilute Hydrochloric acid, and Sodium hydroxide to
neutralize the acidity
- Third we test the presence of reducing sugar.
- If the sample is positive for reducing sugar test, this indicates that before hydrolysis with
a) Use results in(i) and(ii) in the table aboveand calculate the percentage of ascorbic acid in
the suspensions of E. Show your working.
b) Comment on difference in percentage of ascorbic acid in the two suspensions as calculated
in the question 1.
c) Calculate the percentage of ascorbic acid in solution G before and after boiling
d) How can you explain the difference in percentage of ascorbic acid in the unboiled solution
and boiled solution?
Answers for extended activities
1)The specimen are:
- Specimen E: Tomato fruit
- Specimen F: Orange fruit
- Suspension of E and F: Fresh Juice from tomato and orange fruits respectively.
- Percentage of ascorbic acid in suspension equals the number of the used quantity (5cm 3)
over the number of drops of the solution (20cm3) times the concentration of ascorbic acid
solution. From here, E=5/20×0.1=0.025%
- Percentage of Ascorbic acid in suspension is calculated in the same way as the data
summarized in the above table, so that: F=5/10×0.1=0.05%
- Note:5 drops of 0.1% ascorbic acid (solution G) produces the same effect (Decolorized
solution Y) as drops of solution E (E%), so that 5×0.1=20×E. From this equation:
E=5×0.1=0.025%
7) Specimen F has a higher content of ascorbic acid than specimen E.
8) Before boiling the percentage is 0.1% while after boiling: 5/7×0.1=0.07%
Self-assessment 7.3
1) Write the molecular structure of sucrose
2) How is the glycosidic link is formed
3) Sucrose is formed when two monosaccharide are assembled together:
a) Name those two monosaccharides.
b) Using the ring form of these monosaccharide named above explain and show
sucrose formation?
Answers for self-assessment 7.3
1) C12H22O11
2) The glycosidic link is formed by condensation reaction/dehydration where a molecule of water lost.
Activity 7.4
1) Based on the meaning of monosaccharide, what is the meaning of polysaccharide?
2) Classify the following compound into polysaccharide, monosaccharide and disaccharide
a) Glucose, fructose and galactose
b) Lactose, sucrose, and maltose
c) Starch, cellulose and glycogen
3) Use glucose to form any polysaccharide of your choice
Answers for the activity7.4
1) Monosaccharide means single sugar; because monos: single sacchar: sugar
Polysaccharide it is a polymer of monosaccharide
2) Answers are:
a) Monosaccharide
b) Disaccharide
c) Polysaccharides
3) Figure of Starch, cellulose, or glycogen
Self-Assessment 7.4
1) What type of reaction is involved in the formation of glucose from starch?
Fat Phospholipids
b) Pentose=C5H10O5
5) Hydrolysis reaction
6) Answers:
a) Alpha glucose is the β glucose. Ring monosaccharide are said to be alpha (α) if the -OH group
located on carbon 1 is below the ring and beta (β) when the -OH group is above the ring.
b) Glycogen and cellulose: glycogen is made up of α-glucose and exists as granules and is more
highly branched while the glucose in cellulose is β-glucose and it is the chief constituents of cell
walls in living organisms
c) Amylopectin and amylose: Amylopectin and amylose all are form of starch, means that they are
polymer of α glucose the only difference it is that Amylose is unbranched while Amylopectin is
highly branched.
Additional activities
Remedial Activities:
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
4) Each of the questions 1,2,3 consists of an assertion (statement) on the left hand side and a reason
on the right hand side. Select:
a) If both assertion and reason are true statements and the reason is a correct explanation of the
assertion
b) If both assertion and reason are true statements but the reason is not a correct explanation of the
assertion
c) If the assertion is true but the reason is an incorrect statement
d) If the assertion is incorrect but the reason is a true statement
1 Enzymes are because They are made of
denatured by high protein
a) Similarities
- Long chain of alpha glucose
- Branching chain
- Long chain linked by glycosidic links / bonds.
Differences
- Starch is less branching while glycogen is profusely branching
- Starch is less soluble while glycogen is more soluble
- Starch exists as grains while glycogen exists as tiny granules
a) In plants, starch is stored in tubers (potatoes, cassava…) and in stem
b) In animals’ glycogen is stored in liver and muscles
2) Large molecules of denser monomers take up a less space than an equivalent amount of the
monomer. Also, large molecules are usually insoluble in water and not easily broken down. Starch
and glycogen are therefore more efficient storage units than glucose.
UNIT 8 PROTEINS AND WATER
Consolidation activities: Suggested questions and answers for deep development of competences.
1) Answer the following questions:
Introductory activity
1) From the different food stuffs you are provided with, make a list of food stuffs that
are good sources of minerals and vitamins.
2) Using text books and internet, make a list of some vitamins and mineral deficiency
Diseases
Expected answers for introductory activity
Foods that are good sources of vitamin: green vegetables, beans, wheat, pumpkin, meat, fish, orange,
banana, sunflower seed and avocado. Some vitamins and minerals deficiency diseases are for
example night blindness, rickets, beriberi, cretinism, scurvy, anemia, and goiter.
Activity 9.1
Use textbooks and internet to list mineral nutrients found in human diet
Answer for activity 9.1
Calcium (K), potassium (K), phosphorus (P), Nitrogen (N), Sulfur (S), Sodium (Na), Iron (Fe),
Magnesium (Mg), Fluoride (F), zinc (Zn), Cobalt (Co), chromium, selenium and molybdenum (Mo),
Manganese (Mn), Iodine (I), Chloride (Cl) .
Self-assessment 9.1
1) State at least ten mineral nutrients required in human diet.
2) Answer by true or false and justify your answer: “Minerals are called essential
nutrients because they are more important than others”.
Answers for self-assessment 9.1
- Ten mineral nutrients required in humans: calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), Nitrogen (N), Sulfur (S),
Potassium (K), Sodium (Na), Iron (Fe), Magnesium (Mg), Iodine (I), Chloride (Cl),
- False. They are called essential not because they are more important but because they are necessary
and the human body cannot make them itself.
Activity 9.2
Iodized table salt is advised to prevent goiter. In 100g of table salt there is 99% of NaCl, but
only 1% of iodine. Refer to the notes below find the reason behind this ratio.
Answers for activity 9.2
Sodium and chloride are needed in relative large amounts while iodine is needed in a very small
amount.
Self-assessment 9.2
1) Categorize mineral nutrients by their abundance in human body.
2) Distinguish the two categories of mineral nutrients needed by the human body.
3) From the minerals listed here, identify the five major minerals in the human body:
Sulfur (S), Potassium (K), Sodium (Na), Iron (Fe), Magnesium (Mg), Iodine (I),
(iii) a and c
(iv) a and d
(v) b
(vi) b and d
(vii) d
(viii) c
(ix) c
(x) d
4) Goiter, rickets, scaly skin, anemia, impaired immunity
Self-assessment 9.3
1) Match the mineral nutrients with its function
a) Iodine 1) make bones hard
b) Fluorine 2) maintains the immune system stronger
c) Phosphorus 3) component of hemoglobin
d) Iron 4) prevents tooth decay
e) Copper 5) used in synthesis of thyroid hormone (thyroxin)
2) In a tabular form, identify the major dietary sources, the functions in human bodies and
the deficiency diseases of the following minerals: Ca, I, P, zinc, and Cu
3) Choose the best answer.
(i) They are the minerals we need a lot in every day diet. How are they called?
a) Macronutrents
Activity 9.5
Answer
The body cannot make them itself while they are very necessary in its functions and processes.
2) Record what you ate yesterday. Decide whether this menu represents a balanced diet. If not plan
how it should be changed to make it more nutritious
Answer
Variable depending on one’s habit diet.
3) What are differences between macronutrients and trace elements?
Answer
UNIT 10 ENZYMES
Introductory activity
Discuss in pair the following questions and share with another pair your findings.
(1) What do you understand by the term enzyme?
(2) Two individuals want to reach the last floor of Kigali city tower. One climbs up using the
ladder but another one uses a lift. What advantage gives the lift over the ladder?
(3) Why digestion of hot food is easy than that of cold food?
The shape of the substrate is not complementary to that of the active site of the enzyme. But the
active site modifies its shape in order to form the complex enzyme-substrate.
Activity 10.4
You will need
Eight test tubes containing 2 cm3 starch solution, amylase solution, and cold water (ice) water
bath, iodine solution, HCl solution, and droppers
Procedure:
Learning activity10.4
To help students to come up with learning outcomes, you are advised to do the following:
- Make different groups and provide the printed handout of the procedure of the experiment.
- Provide the same amount of solution to be used to each group and emphasize on the following the
procedure.
Each group of learners conducts the experiments and record the following observation:
- The solution in tube C has light blue colour because amylase has hydrolysed starch into maltose.
- Solution in tube B and D are deep blue because of the presence of HCl that denatures the enzyme
amylase.
- Tube A looks blue because the enzyme amylase was not active under the cold condition.
At the end of the experiment, allow students to read the note on factors affecting the rate of enzyme
controlled reactions.
You give them a table having row of temperature and the one of temperatures in degrees, so that they
can do analysis and then come up with an explanation and conclusion on Q10. From their conclusion,
extend it to questions or explanation about denaturation and end product inhibitor or allosteric
inhibitor or allostery.
The teacher helps learners interpret the solution of worked example questions from their textbook.
Self-Assessment 10.4
1) What is meant by Q10 of an enzyme controlled reaction?
2) You are provided with the table below of the rate of an enzyme controlled reaction.
Temperature / oC 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0
Rate / mgs-1 0.01 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.8 0.4 0.2 0.02
Calculate the value of Q10 at:
a) 0C
V is a substrate
W, X and Y are intermediate compounds
Z is a product
e1, e2, e3, and e4 are enzymes
a) Name the type of control mechanism which regulates production of compound Z
b) Explain precisely how an excess of compound Z will inhibit its further production.
Answers of self-assessment 10.4
1) Q10 is the fact that the rate of the enzyme controlled reaction doubles when the temperature is
raised by 10 C
2) (a) Q10 at 0 C= Rate of reaction at (x+10) ͦCRate of reaction at x ̊C = Rate at (0+10) CRate at 0 ̊C = 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑡
10𝐶𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑡 0𝐶 = 0.10.01 = x 10
(b) Q10 at 10 C= Rate of reaction at (x+10) ͦCRate of reaction at x ̊C = Rate at (10+10) CRate at 10 ̊C = 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑡
20𝐶𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑡 10𝐶 = 0.20.1 = x 2
(c) Q10 at 50 C= Rate of reaction at (x+10) ͦCRate of reaction at x ̊C = Rate at (50+10) CRate at 50 ̊C = 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑡
60𝐶𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑡 50𝐶 = 0.20.4 = x 0.5
3) Enzymes more likely to be thermostable/ resistant to Denaturation at high temperatures; processes
using these enzymes can be run at high temperature / over a wide range of temperatures.
4) (a) It is the end product inhibition / allosteric inhibition
5) (b) the compound Z acts as allosteric / non-competitive inhibitor
Activity10.5
Read the scenario below and then answer the question that follows:
Four Presidents are gathered in the Convention Centre of Kigali. They were requested to
mention in advance their preferences in term of meal menu, air conditioners, entertainment,
sport, etc. The manager realised that they have different preferences. The manager of the
convention Centre said it is normal to find them having differences in preference because event
the body of a single individual there are thousands of enzymes to serve our metabolism.
Therefore, the manager decided to allocate 5 servants per presidents.
With reference to the above scenario, explain why there are thousands of enzymes in living
organisms.
Answers of the activity 10.5
There are thousands upon thousands of chemical reactions that happen in the body that require
enzymes to speed up their rate of reaction, or will never happen. Enzymes are very specific, so nearly
each of these chemical reactions has its own enzyme to increase its rate of reaction
Self-Assessment 10.5
1) Fill the blank with appropriate terms:
Enzymes are biological ____________________ produced by
___________________________ cells. Enzymes reduce the amount of
____________________ energy required tor reactions to occur. They consist of
globular ____________________ with _______________________ structure.
(b) If there are no enzymes in the cell, the metabolic reactions would stop and therefore the cell
would die
(c) Heat increases the motions of molecules and leads to collisions between reactant molecules.
Activity 10.6
Enzymes are needed in everyday life. At school you can use salivary amylase to hydrolyse
starch. There is industrial technique used to get large amounts of enzyme amylase without
collect saliva from people.
Read through the notes below and answer the questions below:
a) Describe how enzyme technology is conducted
b) What is the role of thermophilic bacteria in this process?
c) How is improved the stability of enzyme?
Learning activities 10.
Towards learning objective, guide students how the activity 10.6 should be done as described in
students’ textbook.
After reading and answering to the questions of activity, ask them to present their findings.
From what they have presented, help students to summarize the lesson through questions. Extend the
conclusion of the lesson and attract learners’ attention by a concept of being a job creator (financial
education) through enzymes technology.
Self-Assessment 10.6
1) What is the role of alcohol or ammonium sulphate during the extraction of
enzymes?
2) Why is the thermostability of enzymes so important for many industrial
processes?
Answers for self-assessment 10.6
a) Alcohol and ammonium sulphate are used to precipitate the enzyme from a solution
b) High temperatures occur during many industrial processes.
End of unit assessment 10
1) Enzymes are biocatalysts.
a) What is the meaning of the following terms elated to enzyme activity?
(i) Catalyst
(ii) Activation energy
(iii) Lock and key
(iv) Q10
b) Why are there hundreds of different enzymes in a cell?
c) How do enzymes reduce the activation energy of a reaction?
2) Enzyme activity is related to a number of factors.
/mg
10 5
20 10
30 40
40 80
50 20
a) Fill that table with the values of the rate of reaction and plot a graph of rate at different
temperatures (use x-axis for temperature).
b) Calculate Q10 at 30°C.
c) Explain what happen between 20 and 30°C, and between 40 and 50°C.
6) The graph below shows the activity of a commercial enzyme alcalase at different pH value.
Alcalase is a protease enzyme.
Additional activities
Remedial activities
Answer: A
3) Which of the following statements is not true regarding the active site of an enzyme?
c) Substrates fit into active sites and bind to functional groups within the active site.
d) An active site contains amino acids which are important to the binding process and the catalytic
mechanism.
Answer: B
4) What will happen to the rate of the enzyme controlled reaction if the temperature passes from
15C to 25C?
Answers
The rate of the reaction will double because the temperature increases by 10C from 15C to 25C
5) What is meant by the end-product inhibition?
Answers
The end product inhibition is when the end product comes to fit in the active site of the enzyme and
therefore prevents the enzyme from binding to another substrate.
6) Answer by True or False:
a) A single enzyme catalyse only a specific reaction or a closely related group of reactions
b) A single enzyme can catalyse the breakdown of several molecules of different natures
c) An enzyme can speed up or slowdown the rate of reaction
d) There are thousands of enzymes because each reaction requires its optimum conditions and its
specific enzyme
e) Digestive enzymes are found in the saliva, gastric juice, pancreatic juice and the bile
Answers:
A. True B. False C. False D. True E. False
7) Why does an enzyme catalyse only a specific reaction or a closely related group of reactions?
Answer
An intracellular enzyme is produced inside a microorganism while an extracellular enzyme is
excreted by an organism.
Consolidated activities
1) Use the Excel program to draw the curve of the rate of enzyme controlled reaction from the data
bellow.
Temp 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
eratur
e/
C
Rate 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.8 1.6 0.8 0.2 0.05
of the
reacti
on
Answer:
Answer
- There is no reducing sugar in the bottles A1 and A2 but much reducing sugar in bottle D2. Mixtures
in bottles A1 and A2 served as control.
- Bottles B1, C1 and D1 have lesser reducing sugars than the bottles B2, C2 and D2.
- The enzyme amylase hydrolyzed the starch into maltose, a reducing sugar. The rate of the reaction
was expressed in term of the concentration of reducing sugar in the solution.
The rate of reaction depended on the concentration of the enzyme and the temperature.
5) Ptyaline is the specific name of the salivary amylase. What is the role of ptyalin?
Answer
Ptyalin hydrolyses the large molecules of starch into small molecules of maltose
6) Make research on the applications of enzymes is industrial processes.
Answer
Extended activities
1) Make research on the enzyme called Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) and get ready to present
your finding.
Answer: Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) are a group of dehydrogenase enzymes that occur in many
organisms and facilitate the interconversion between alcohols and aldehydes or ketones with the
reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+ to NADH). In humans and many other
animals, they serve to break down alcohols that otherwise are toxic, and they also participate in
generation of useful aldehyde, ketone, or alcohol groups during biosynthesis of various metabolites.
In yeast, plants, and many bacteria, some alcohol dehydrogenases catalyze the opposite reaction as
part of fermentation to ensure a constant supply of NAD+
2) Suggest how you would set an experiment to show that enzyme speed the rate of reaction
Answer: Set a control solution and a treated solution with en enzyme. Allow time for the experiment
to take place. Compare both solutions at the same interval of time. Draw your conclusion.
3) Use the modelling/ natural clay or plasticine to design models of key –and-lock theory and fit
induced theory
Answer: (Provide the modeling clay and allow learners to improvise their models which shall have
the Enzyme – the active site – the substrate)
4) Plan to take students for a field trip to nearest industry that use enzyme to make their products
(e.g. Bralirwa, Inyange etc.
5) It was found that both pepsin and Trypsin play the same role of breaking down protein into
polypeptides. What is the relevance of having both pepsin and Trypsin?
- Pepsin works in acid medium (pH = 2) while Trypsin requires a basic medium (pH = 8.2)
- There are large amounts of proteins in our diets. Pepsin alone would not enough to carry out such
an activity
Introductory activity
Kalisa and his sister Uwase wanted to rear tilapia at their home. They bought a nice transparent
plastic box. They felt it with 1.5L clean mineral water, put in some pieces of meat and plant
leaves. They finally introduced a living tilapia in the box and covered. After two days they were
happy to see their fish swimming but on the third day they become sad of finding it dead and
yet the food was still in water.
What could cause the death of Kalisa and Uwesa’s fish?
Activity 11.1
1) Use Manila paper, scissors, and graduate ruler to create three cubes: 3cm x 3cm, 2cm
x 2cm, 1cm x 1cm
a) Calculate the surface area, the volume, and the surface area to volume ratio of
each cube. What do you conclude from these ratios?
b) Compare the surface area to the volume of a spherical alveolus having a radius of
0.001m and that of another animal with a radius of 0.000001m.
2) What do you understand by surface area to volume ratio?
Answers for activity 11.1
1) The following are the answers:
a) Remember that for a cube, Area A=6S2 and its volume V= S3 (You better use the excel software to
calculate)
Side /mm Area (A) Volume A to V
(V) ratio
3 54 27 2
2 24 8 3
1 6 1 6
2) The surface area to volume ratio is the relationship between the volume of an organ and it volume.
Self-Assessment 11.1
1) Write a short note about the surface area to volume ratio of an object
2) Determine the surface area to volume of a sphere having a diameter of 4 mm.
Procedure
- Place the dissecting board on the newspaper and lay the lungs on the board.
BIOLOGY QUESTIONS S4 2023-2024 PREPARED BY VEDASTE BIMENYIMANA Page 111
- Use a scalpel to cut the lungs in half in longitudinal section.
- Identify the trachea, right lung, left lung, cartilage rings, bronchus, larynx, alveoli, and
bronchiole. You can use a magnifying hand lens to observe structures in the lungs.
- Inflate the lungs by blowing through the CPR (cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation)
mouth piece to see how the lungs expand.
- Feel the slippery inside of trachea, press the lung with your finger and look at
cartilaginous rings.
- Remember to wash your hand s with soap as you finish your experiment.
1) Explain what it feels like as you press the lungs with your fingers.
2) Look at cartilaginous rings. What function do they serve?
3) (a) List four features of respiratory surfaces.
(b) Examine the lung and explain how the lungs are suited for efficient gaseous exchange.
Expected answers:
1) The lungs are soft and flexible as one presses with fingers
2) The cartilaginous rings have the function of maintaining the trachea open
3) The lungs have the following features surfaces: large surface – moist – blood capillary -
Self-Assessment 11.2
1) Describe the adaptations of the gills for gaseous exchange
2) List the structures through which air passes on its way from the nose to the alveoli.
3) Give two reasons why mammals need lungs, rather exchanging gases through the skin.
- Tell students to work in groups and orient them on the source of information.
- You can provide textbook or bring students in the smart computer laboratory to carry out the
research. Invite them to make a report of what they have read and acquired from the reading
resource.
Self-Assessment 11.3
1) Revise the above characteristic features of respiratory surface areas and thereafter
identify those which are common to all living organisms (unicellular and multicellular,
Sensitize students to find diagram or picture of lungs attached by tuberculosis. If there is no if there is
no network, use the suggested diagrams of individuals A and B in activity 11.4.
Ask questions about the person who suffer from tuberculosis and why? Don’t argue with them who
might argue that both individuals seem to be sick but emphasize to the one who looks more affected?
The answer to that question should be the individual B because of the granules appearing in the
lungs.
Self-Assessment 11.4
Analyze the photograph below and share with your group members your concern.
1) Between the baby and the parent who will suffer more effects of tobacco? Give reasons
2) Discuss any one negative side of smoking tobacco cigarette.
3) Design a sign post to advocate against smoking tobacco.
- The list of consequences will be generated from the notes in the students’ book. They include the
short term and long term consequences such as:
- Tar paralyses the cilia which remove dirt and bacteria; the accumulation of extra material in the air
passage can restrict air flow.
- Smoke acts as an irritant; this causes secretion of excess mucus from goblet cells and excess fluid
into the airways, making it more difficult for the air to pass through them.
- Mucus accumulating in the alveoli limits the air that they can contain and lengthens the diffusion
pathway.
- Coughing of many smokers, way of trying to remove the build-up of mucus from the lungs, can
cause damage to the airways and alveoli; scar tissue builds up which again reduces air movement and
rates of diffusion
- Infections arise because the cilia no longer remove mucus and pathogens
- Bronchitis: Bronchitis is inflammation of the lining of the air passages and may be acute or chronic.
- Lung cancer: Lung cancer usually starts in the epithelium of the bronchioles and then spreads
throughout the lungs as dividing cells cease to respond to the normal signals around them and form
unspecialized masses of cells called tumours. The tar is the smoke is carcinogen i.e. contains
chemicals which cause cancer. The irritation causes thickening of the epithelium by extra cell
division and this may trigger the cancer. Almost all people who die from lung cancer are smokers
2) Students will design several sign posters and the teacher will appreciate and encourage them.
- The surfaces of the alveoli are moist for gases to dissolve before diffusion can occur
- Surfactant cells (septal cells) secrete surfactant (a phospholipid). This allows the surface tension of
the fluid lining the inner surface of alveolus and speeds up gaseous exchange
- The alveoli have thin walls (on cell thick) which minimize the distance for gas diffusion
- The alveoli are surrounded by numerous blood capillaries, which bring carbon dioxide for diffusion
into the alveoli and carry away oxygen to the circulatory system
- A good ventilation system provides a constant supply of oxygen to the alveoli and removes carbon
dioxide
a) When an individual suffers from Emphysema there is a gradual breakdown of the thin walls of the
alveoli, decreasing the total surface area for gaseous exchange.
b) In people with emphysema, the air sacs in the lungs (alveoli) are damaged. Over time, the inner
walls of the air sacs weaken and rupture — creating larger air spaces instead of many small ones.
This reduces the surface area of the lungs and, in turn, the amount of oxygen that reaches the
bloodstream.
- They maintain a high concentration gradient between the blood in the gills and the water passing
over them
- (a) Similarities between respiratory surface area in the fish and in the mammals
- Both have a large surface area
- Both have blood capillary network
- Both have thin wall
c) Differences between respiratory surface area in the fish and in the mammals
Fish Mammals
Use gills Use lungs
Adapted for gas exchange in water Adapted for gas exchange in air
Unit structures for gas exchanges are gill Unit structures for gas exchange are alveoli
filamments
High affinity to oxygen Lower affinity to oxygen
- Tobacco smoke contains a number of carcinogens i.e. substances that cause cancer. These cause
mutations that lead to uncontrolled mitosis and formation of tumours.
The tar is the smoke is also carcinogen. The irritation causes thickening of the epithelium by extra
cell division and this may trigger the cancer. Almost all people who die from lung cancer are
smokers.
- The diagram they will design will look like the following:
11.9Additional activities
11.9.1 Remedial activity
1) Between an elephant and a rat which animal is expected to have a big surface area to volume?
Why?
Answer:
It is the rat because the small the volume the bigger the surface area to volume ratio.
2) The diagram below shows the respiratory system in a human. Label the structures A – G.
Answer:
Well ventilated and highly perfused with blood to maintain a high concentration gradient; numerous,
small, and highly folded to provide a very large surface area; thin (one cell thick) to minimize
diffusion distance between the blood in the capillaries and the air in the lungs.
4) Name the gas in cigarette smoke that prevents oxygen from binding to haemoglobin
Answer:
Carbon monoxide
11.9.2 Consolidated activity
1) What is the consequence of having a small surface area to volume ratio?
Answer:
Animal with a too small surface area to volume ratio cannot meet the demand of transport of
substances by diffusion.
2) Arthropods do not have the haemoglobin to transport oxygen. Explain the relevance of the
tracheole system in insect to overcome the shortage of oxygen supply.
Answer:
Air is directly brought to the active tissues where the gas exchange is directly done by diffusion.
3) If the air contains 0.04% of CO2, calculate p (CO2). Assume that the total pressure of the air is
101.3KPa.
Answer:
Cigarette smoking lowers oestrogen levels and reduces bone mineralization
11.9.3 Extended activity
1) Answer the following questions:
a) Use excel software to find out the surface area to volume ration of the following cubes:
Side/mm Area (A) Volume A to V
(V) ratio
1
2) (b)
3) Why the fish cannot survive longer out of water at yet the atmosphere has plenty oxygen than
water?
Answer
Because the gills are adapted to fix little amount of oxygen dissolved in water. The flow of water in
parallel current or countercurrent direction allows the efficient gas exchange. But the open air does
not match with such an adaptation in fish.
4) Suggest why each cubic centimeter volume of a frog lung has a total gaseous exchange surface of
20 Cm2, whereas a cubic centimeter volume of a mouse lung has a gaseous exchange surface of
about 800 cm2.
Answer
The shape of the respiratory surface areas of both frog and mouse are not the same.
5) How does tar in cigarette smoke contribute to the development of emphysema?
Introductory activity
In unit 11 you discussed that all aerobic organisms need efficient respiratory surface area. In
humans the organs involved in respiration are more visible. Have you ever thought of how
plants do their gaseous exchange? If so, what structures are involved?
Self-assessment 12.2
1) According to the ionic theory of opening and closing stoma, what is the role of potassium ions
in the guard cell?
2) What would happen to guard cells if the concentration of malate doubled?
3) What is meant by compensation point?
Answers for self-assessment 12.2
- Potassium increases the permeability of carbon dioxide into the guard cells.
- Osmotic pressure will increase and guard cells will open wider.
- The rate of photosynthesis is equal to the one of cell respiration or the volume of the carbon dioxide
released by respiration is equal to the volume of oxygen released by photosynthesis.
Activity 12.3
Observe the adaptations of these plants for gas exchange.
i. Explain how the movement of K+ ions accounts for the opening of stomata.
ii. Explain how K+ ions are moved against a concentration gradient.
(b) (i) During day K+ ions move into the guard cells lowering the water potential and drawing in
water by osmosis. Guard cells with swollen vacuoles pull apart and stomata open.
(ii) K+ ions pass from low to high concentration by active transport. An input of energy is required
provided by ATP. Protein carriers are involved in active transport across a membrane
Additional activities
Remedial activities
1) Define each of the following terms: (a) Stoma – (b) pneumatophores – (c) Lenticels
2) Name the structures involved in gaseous exchange in plants
3) State the adaptations for gaseous exchange in mangroves.
Answers:
1) (a) Stoma is the aperture between two guard cells that opens and closes to control water
transpiration and gaseous exchange in plant leaves and stems (b) Pneumatophores are breathing roots
of plants (c) Lenticels are any of pores in the stems of woody plants that allow gas exchange between
the atmosphere and the internal tissues.
2) Structures involves in gaseous exchange in plants are stomata, cuticles, lenticels and
pneumatophores.
3) Adaptation of gas exchange in mangroves:
- Presence of stomata on leaves
- Presence of lenticels
- Presence of pneumatophores
Consolidated activities
Extended activities
Have a Commelina leaf. Remove its upper epidermis and its lower epidermis. Use 2mm x 2mm
portion from each epidermis. Mount each portion on a drop of dilute iodine solution. Observe each
preparation under the lower magnification. Count the number of stomata from each side. Repeat the
same procedure using the leaf of mango leaf.
a) Fill the table below:
Introductory activity
We all ever seen living organisms both plants and animals around us. They have differences
in body heights, widths and formation of new organs. What do you think to be the causal agent
about these changes in living organisms?
Expected answers for introductory activity
Cells divide; new cells absorb nutrients and water. They get bigger thus the organism increases in
height and width: this is growth
Activity 13.1
- Put dry bean seeds and maize grains in boiling water for 10 minutes.
- Use nails to make a longitudinal section of the bean and maize.
- Compare the two sections.
- From your point of view, do you think that all plants’ organs are always active?
Justify your point of view.
- Produce a picture showing how plant organ (seed and bud) behaves in relation to
oxygen, temperature and water..
Answer for activity 13.1
- Carry out the experiment
- Diagram in the student’s book figure 13.1
- No. some organs are dormant (not active) due to changes in growth factors (internal as well as
external factors), organs like seeds, bud and fruit depending on the period; can stop temporary
growing or developing. However, if conditions become favorable, the dormancy breaks and the
growth restarts.
Self-assessment 13.1
1) Describe what is dormancy?
2) Explain how dormancy is maintained and broken?
3) Suggest the advantage of dormancy in plants?
4) What are conditions needed for seed germination?
5) Explain the role of enzymes during the process of seed germination.
6) Draw and label endospermic and non-endospermic seeds
Answers for self-assessment 13.1
1) Dormancy is the period of low metabolic rate with little or no growth in plant organs.
2) The wood consists of secondary xylem cells that are strengthened by lignin and cellulose. Its role
is to ensure mechanical support to the plant.
3) The increase in length would slow.
4) Suberin
Activity 13.4
In the learning activity 13.1 you have grown two types of seeds (bean and maize). Based on
that experiment do the following to investigate the primary growth in a seedling.
- Use a centimeter ruler, measure the height of each plant once each five days.
- Use a thread and a centimeter ruler to measure the width.
- Record your measurement in a tabular form as shown below.
Plant type Plant height
Day 5 Day 10 Day 15 Day 20
Bean
Maize
1) On the basis of the period of time indicated in the above table, count the number of leaves.
What do you notice?
2) Among the two given plants, predict the one with an increased volume of protoplasm and dry
mass.
Answer for the activity 13.4
Recording from each group
Self-assessment
1) A sign is hammered into a tree 2 m from the tree's base. If the tree is 10 m tall and elongates
1m each year, how high will the sign be after 10 years?
2) What features would enable you to conclude that this organism has grown?
3) Would you expect a tropical tree to have distinct growth rings? Why or why not?
4) If a complete ring of bark is removed around a tree trunk (a process called girdling), the
tree usually dies. Explain why.
Answers for self-assessment 13.4
Gibberellins (GA)
- Promote growth of shoots and
leaves
- Stimulate seed germination, and
seedling growth
- Increase size of fruit
- Stimulates parthenocarpy
Ethylene
- stimulate ripening of fruit
- Promotes flowering in mangoes and
pineapples
- Promotes abscission (detachment of
leaves).
- Stimulate seed dormancy
3) The growth in height slows down and the lateral shoot grows dramatically.
Activity 13.6
Most of plants grow toward the sunlight direction. The few which have been observed respond
to external stimuli like touching and temperature.
1) From your daily experience, brainstorm what will happen to the plant when:
- it is exposed to the direction of the sunlight
- its growing part is exposed to a physical material like a stone
- a living organism touches on it (Memosapudica)
2) Use internet and textbooks and describe why some plants flourish during long daylight while
others do not?
3) What names can be given to the above processes.
Answer for the activity 13.6
1) The shoot grows toward the light but the root grows away from the light.It grows away from that
physical material. The fold when touched.
2) Because plants respond to the relative length of light and dark period in 24-hours cycle.
3) Photoperiodism
Self –assessment13.6
1) What role does phytochrome play in photoperiodism?
2) What is the difference between a short-day plant and a long-day plant?
3) What could happen if a short-day plant is grown in the long days of summer?
Answers for self-assessment 13.6
1) Phytochrome are photoreceptors (light-sensing) present in very low concentration in many plant
organs whose role is to detect the amount of light to induce flowering.
a) Illustrate the expected shape of the shoot and that of the root after a week.
b) Suggest names for the expectations in the above experiment.
c) Based on the above experiment, draw a diagram illustrating the shape and size of cells of both
upward and downward side of the root.
d) Suggest a technique that can be used to minimize the effect of the stimulus in this experiment.
2. (a) What is the difference between ‘antagonistic’ and ‘synergistic’ when referring to plant growth
substances?
(b) What are the two plant growth substances that act antagonistically and which act synergistically?
3. Copy and complete the following table
(a)
Activity 13.7
From a pond or swamp, collect frog eggs (remain them with water). Keep some eggs in warm
conditions at room temperature between 2 to 30 days.
1) Regularly visit them and note the observation.
2) Use the diagram below and relate your observation in (1) above to the one given in the
diagram.
- Each egg hatches into a tailed larva breathing through gills called tadpole.
2) Answers:
(a) The increase in the dry mass, the increase in the volume of protoplasm, the increase in the length,
the increase in the thickness
Activity 14.1
From your daily experience as well as research from books and the internet:
1) Give details about the concept of locomotion
2) Make a list of how do animals move
3) Discuss all reasons justifying why living organisms particularly animals need to
move from one place to another?
Self-assessment 14.1
Self-assessment 14.2
1) Describe the type of locomotion found in:
a) Amoeba
b) Paramecium caudatum
c) Trypanosomagambiense
d) Trypanomavaginalis
e) Giardia intestinalis
2) How do cilia differ from flagellum?
3) Produce picture showing the locomotion of amoeba
Activity 14.3
Use a chart below or the real specimen of fish and do the following:
1) Observe the freshly collected fish or the one given in figure below on left, make a diagram
of it, show by labelling its external features particularly fins and lateral line.
From the above fish, student shows V, W and parallel myotomes using like the above fish
diagramme.
1) Segmental body of fish muscles gives the ability to move in undulatory swimming;
2) The anatomical structures that give rise the direction of a fish and preventing diving and rolling
are pelvic fins.
Activity 14.4
Through internet and textbooks, observe a dog, chicken, frog and earthworm and think
about how the locomotion is brought about and do the following:
1) Make a diagram showing how support and movement of different animals such as a dog,
chicken, frog and worm is brought about on land.
2) Show by diagrams the relationship between muscles, joints and musculo-skeletal attachment in
mammals, birds, frog and earthworm.
Self-assessment 14.4
1. What are the main muscles that contribute to locomotion in mammals, amphibians and birds?
2. Draw an earthworm and illustrate the muscles that contribute to its locomotion.
3. What type of skeleton
4. n system found in mammals, birds, amphibians and annelids?
5. Illustrate how flexor and extensor muscles contribute to lifting up a leg in human being.
Self-assessment 14.5
1) What are the muscles that enable the flight in birds?
2) Describe how bird skeleton contributes to its flight?
3) Describe how birds are adapted to flying.
Activity 14.6
Use a collecting net to catch a grasshopper and toad from school compound. Put them down on
cemented ground for observing them very carefully when they make a jump and then answer to
the following:
1) Identify and describe anatomic structures that enable grasshoppers to jump
2) Illustrate how legs’ muscles behave when they are resting and or jumping.
- Flexor and extensor are attached to the exoskeleton in insects and endoskeleton in frogs.
- There are also extensor tibiae muscle which contracts to extends the rear/backleg, and the flexor
tibiae muscle which contracts to flex the leg
- Those muscles pull on tendons which are attached to the tibia on either side of the joint pivot.
- Frogs like grasshoppers hope by means of their hind limbs which are capable to be shortened and
straightened as a result of its jumping muscles. They are different by having skeleton. And ability
one possess over another like moving in water for frogs and flying in air for grasshoppers.
- The fore-limbs are used as shock absorbers on landing and they also prop up (to give support) the
front end of the body when the animal is at rest.
9) Advantages of locomotion are:
- Escape danger fire or predator;
- Look for food, water and shelter;
- Reproduce or find mates;
- Avoid competition with other animals of the same or different species;
- Avoid overcrowding which enables offspring to move to another place;
- Avoid unfavorable condition example migration.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
REMEDIAL ACTIVITIES
1) Differentiate locomotion from movement
Answer:
Movement is the displacement of part of an organism
Locomotion is the displacement of the whole organism from one place to another.
Movement is common to all kind of living
Locomotion is specific to animals
2) What is the function of cilia, flagella and cytoplasmic invaginations, wings, hind limbs, feathers?
Answer:
They enable the animals that exhibit them to move
3) How do the following animals move about? Cow, kangaroo, dog, grasshopper, toad, butterfly,
Trypanosoma sp., snails, snake, o paramecium moves?
Answer:
Answer:
Hydrostatic skeleton is found in most invertebrates and in annelids. It consists of fluid filled body
cavity surrounded by antagonistic sets of muscles.
Exoskeleton is particular to arthropods insects for example, is a hard cuticle made of chitin which
lies outside the muscles which move parts of it.
Endoskeleton is characteristic to bony animals. It is on which muscles are attached.
14.9.2 Consolidated activities
1) Based on different body structures, what does it cause the movement which may result in
locomotion in animals with:
a) Endoskeleton:
b) Exoskeleton
c) Hydrostatic skeleton
Answer:
a) Contraction of muscles bring about movement of their attached bones and finally to the
locomotion.
b) Muscles attached to exoskeleton in part of legs enable the locomotion
c) For animals with hydro skeleton, the movement is brought as result from compressive contraction
action.
2) Based on the table below, put the animals provided here into its respective way of locomotion:
spider, rabbit, mosquito, snake, seahorse, bat, whale, penguin, worm, goose, and dragonfly.
Swim Hop Fly crawl
EXTENDED ACTIVITIES
1) Draw and label a fish diagramme
Answer: a well labelled diagramme showing fins, scales, shape
2) Describe how major muscles of locomotion contribute to locomotion on land
Answer:
Answer:
A diagramme showing muscles arranged in parallel, V, W shape
Introductory activity
One of students in a visited school was found eating without washing hands and he claimed to
see no risk in that.
a) Suggest measures to be taken for addressing issues related to eating without
washing hands.
b) Brain storm on different communicable diseases got from eating without washing
hands.
The expected answers
Issues caused by eating without washing hands include diseases such as cholera, typhoid, amoebic
dysentery, etc. They can be prevented by washing hands before eating, using toilets, not eating food
which is not cleaned.
Activity 15.1
Discuss in groups the following questions
1) What do you think are the causes of death using some examples you experienced in
the village you come from?
2) Give the view why it is difficult to eradicate malaria in Rwanda
Self-assessment 15.1
Example:
2) Health includes mental, spiritual, and physical well-being as well as freedom from disease.
Activity 15.3
Chose in the following list the infectious diseases and suggest the reason why they are infectious:
Self-assessment 15.3
1) Which of the following diseases is transmitted by an insect vector?
a) Cholera
b) HIV/AIDS
c) Malaria
d) TB
2) What do you think are the ways in which cholera is transmitted from person to person?
3) Explain why there is such a high risk of cholera following natural disasters such as
earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons and floods.
4) Explain why there is a high death rate from TB in countries with a high proportion of the
population who are HIV-positive.
5) TB is an opportunistic infection. Why?
6) Describe how malaria is transmitted.
Activity 15.4
Housing quality is associated with morbidity from different factors. State any three factors
Activity 15.5
1) Suppose that you are one of Rwandans who have food industry in our country, and you expect
your production to be inspected. Outline the main requirements for good production to be
inspected?
2) Clean water is good for health. Discuss the ways you would use to obtain clean water at home.
Answer for activity 15.5
1) The main requirements for good production to be inspected:
- Quantity
- Packing
- Labeling
- Dimension
- Weight and visual aspects.
2) The ways you can clean water at home are:
- Use of Sûr–eau
- Heating water.
- Using water purification etc. The steps of water purification are: storage reservoir, aeration,
filtration, disinfection, reduction of chlorine concentration, covered service reservoir, distribution.
Lesson self-assessment 15.5
1) In which ways a personal cleanliness may be achieved.
2) How to promote a hygienic food preparation?
3) Talk about good personal Hygiene.
Additional activities
Remedial Activities:
1) Among scientists you know, who has developed the germ theory of disease
2) Diseases are broadly divided into two categories. What are they?
3) What do you think is a causal agent of cholera?
4) What do understand with Housing?
5) What steps do you use to purify water at home?
Expected answers:
1) Louis Pasteur
2) two categories of diseases are
Consolidation activities:
1) Tell about the work of microbiologist Robert Koch on Cholera
2) Differentiate Antibody from Antigen.
3) Comment on inherited diseases
4) Suggest the importance of living in good house
5) In your own words explain how exercise is highly important in the promotion of good health.
Expected answers:
1) Robert Koch isolated the bacterium Vibrio cholerae which cause a Cholera disease
2) Difference between Antibody and Antigen is:
Antibody: is a protein produced by the body’s immune system when it detects harmful substances
called antigen while Antigen is any substance that causes your immune system to produce antibodies
against it.
3) Comment on inherited diseases:
Inherited diseases are caused by a genetic fault that may be passed from parents to offspring.
4) Importance of living in good house is
- Prevention of infectious disease
- Prevention of jiggers attack
- Prevention of injuries from small animal bites
- It gives confidence in community
- It gives the value in community…
5) Importance of exercise in the promotion of good health:
- Exercise makes the muscles strong so that they can support the body better.
- Exercise helps to get rid of excretory materials and to improve digestion.
- Exercise quickens blood circulation and improves the action of the glands and nerves.
Extended activities
1) What are contributions of Louis Pasteur in microbiology and medicine?
2) Explain how to calculate the incidence rate and mortality rate.
3) Work on the following question
Observe the figure and answer to the question below.
Activity 16.1
Using textbook or internet, tabulate the differences between sexual and asexual reproduction.
Answers to the activity 16.1
Expected answers are under the unit 16 (lesson one) in student book.
Self-assessment 16.1
1) Write on the two types of reproduction.
2) Distinguish between sexual and asexual reproduction.
Answer for self-assessment 16.1
1) Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction done by a single organism without production of
gametes while sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction in which two parents are involved, each
capable of producing gametes.
2) Expected answers are under the unit 16 (lesson one) in student book.
Activity 16.2.1
Brainstorm on asexual reproduction in lower organisms and write reports as an out-of-class
activity.
Answers to the activity 16.2.1
Expected answers are under the unit 16 (lesson two) in student book.
Activity16. 2.2
Demonstration of asexual reproduction by fragmentation in algae
Requirements:
Glass beakers of 500ml, Scalpel, Forceps, Pins, Spatula, Weighing balance, Labels,
Artificial, fertilizers, Clear river water and Spirogyra (algae).
Procedure
1) Label five beakers of the same size as A, B, C, D and E. Pour water in each beaker. Weigh
several measures of artificial fertilizers of 1 g each.
2) There are five common modes of asexual reproduction: fission, budding, vegetative reproduction,
spore formation and fragmentation.
3) Vegetative reproduction is the formation of a new individual from any vegetative part of the plant
body.
(i) Year after year same variety is produced. New varieties cannot be produced by this method.
(ii) Since all the plants are genetically alike, they are susceptible to same diseases.
(iii) The plants when grown repeatedly may lose vigor.
(iv) Undesirable characters get transmitted from one generation to another.
Consolidation activities
Advantages of budding
(i) New varieties with desired characters like color or disease-resistance can be obtained by taking
recourse to sexual process.
(ii) It can be easily practiced.
The corolla: it is the set of petals, with different colours and nectar glands that produce sugary
substances which participate in attraction of pollinating agents. In some plants, the petals are green
and are called sepaloids. Both calyx and corolla are collectively called perianth. They are called
floral envelope or accessory organs as they do not participate directly in reproduction, or in
formation of fruits and seeds, they all insure the protection of internal parts of the flower.
- Androecium: is the male reproductive organ of the flower. It consists of many stamens. A stamen
consists of: the filament which supports anther, and anther which contains the pollen grains or male
gametes.
- Gynoecium/pistil: is the female reproductive organ. It consists of many carpels, and each carpel is
made of: stigma (plural: stigmata), style and ovary with ovules.
ii) Style: supports the stigma in a good position to receive pollen grains.
iii) Ovary: a sac where ovules are produced. Ovules become seeds after fertilisation.
2) A flower is a reproductive organ of a plant, which produces fruits and seeds
3) Expected answer is under the unit 17 (lesson two) in student book.
Self-assessment 17.2
BIOLOGY QUESTIONS S4 2023-2024 PREPARED BY VEDASTE BIMENYIMANA Page 162
1) What are the male and female structures of a flower?
2) How might be an advantage for a plant to have many flowers together in a single structure?
3) Where does the female gametophyte develop?
4) Describe the flower and how it is involved in reproduction.
Answers for self-assessment 17.2
1) The male structures are the stamen (filament and anther), the female structures are the carpels
(ovary, style and stigma).
2) Many flowers together in a single structure might attract more insects, which might improve
chances of pollination.
3) The female gametophyte develops in the ovules, which are contained in the ovary of the flower.
4) Flowers are reproductive organs that are composed of four kinds of specialized leaves: sepals,
petals, stamens, and carpels. Stamens produce male gametophytes, and the carpels produce male
gametophytes.
Activity 17.3
Use library resources to identify different pollinating agents and describe the process of double
fertilization in flowering plants.
Answers for activity 17.3
1) The main pollinating agents include: insects (entomophily), wind (anemophily), water
(hydrophily), humans (anthropophily), and birds (ornithophily).
2) The process of double fertilization in flowering plants begins when a pollen grain adheres to the
stigma of the carpel, the female reproductive structure of a flower. The pollen grain then takes in
moisture and begins to germinate, forming a pollen tube that extends down toward the ovary through
the style. The growth of the pollen tube is controlled by the pollen tube nucleus. In the pollen tube,
the generative nucleus divides mitotically into two haploid nuclei which are the male gamete nuclei.
These follow behind the tube nucleus as the pollen tube grows down the style towards the ovule. The
tip of the pollen tube then enters the ovary and penetrates through the micropyle opening, releasing
the two sperms in the megagametophyte or ovule.
The tube nucleus degenerates, leaving a clear passage for the entry of male nuclei. One nucleus
fertilizes the egg cell to form a diploid zygote (2N), which will grow into a new plant embryo; the
other fuses with polar nuclei to form a triploid nucleus (3N), which will grow into a food-rich
tissue known as endosperm, which nourishes the seedling as it grows. This process is described as
double fertilisation and is typical of angiosperms.
Self-assessment 17.3
1) Are angiosperms typically wind or animal pollinated? How does this process occur?
2) What is meant by the term endosperm?
3) How are brightly coloured petals advantageous to the plant?
4) What do you understand by the term double fertilization?
5) What happens to the antipodal cells and synergids cells after fertilization?
Answers for self-assessment 17.3
1) Angiosperms are typically pollinated by animals such as insects, birds and bats carry pollen from
one flower to another as they gather nectar.
2) It is a food rich tissue that nourishes the embryo during germination. It is inside the embryo sac.
3) Brightly coloured petals attract insects and other animals such as birds to the reproductive
structures of the flower and increase chances of pollination.
4) Double fertilization is means two fertilizations that takes place between the male and female
gametophytes. It may be one of the reasons that explain why angiosperms have been so successful.
5) Both disintegrate and disappear after fertilization since they do not have any important role to play .
g) ii (fronds)
h) i (gametophyte)
3) The seeds of angiosperms, because the seeds are enclosed in fruits, which are eaten by animals.
4) In seedless plants, the swimming of the male gametes is analogous to pollination in seed plants.
5) The diploid sporophyte; the gametophyte grows independently of sporophyte. The young
sporophyte grows from the gametophyte.
6) Bryophytes produce sperms that must swim through water to reach the eggs of others.
Consolidation activities
1) Why do many angiosperms produce less pollen than conifers?
2) Name all parts labeled on the diagram below:
3) What is parthenocarpy?
4) Study the diagram below and answer to the question
2) The answers are: A= nucellus; B= three antipodals, C= polar nuclei/ primary endosperm cell; D=
two synergids; E= funicle; F= placenta; G= micropyle, H= egg cell/ ovum; I= integuments; J=
embryo sac.
3) Parthenocarpy. It is when fruits mature without fertilization?
4) Answers are: a) A, b) sporophyte.
Extended activities
1) The diagram below represents a pollen grain.
UNIT 18 MICROBIOLOGY
Introductory activity
Answer the following questions: A student left fresh milk in a cup but which was exposed.
After 6 hours, a student found that milk changed its state from fresh milk to stale milk. Why
do you think this happened? In another scenario, Mukamukiza prepared food at home in
the morning which she intended to serve at dinner. Some food was immediately put in the
food flask tightly covered. While the remaining food was left in the saucepan covered with
banana leaves. In the evening food in the flask was warm and ok while food in the saucepan
had gone bad. What caused food in the saucepan to go bad? Why was food in the flask
affected at the time of serving?
The expected answer for introductory activity
Because fresh milk was contaminated by microorganisms such as bacteria and some fungi.
Food in a saucepan was exposed to harmful microorganisms that made to go bad.
Food in the flask was preserved and prevented from contamination by microbes thus unaffected.
Activity 18.1.1
Using textbooks brainstorm the meaning of microbiology and groups of microorganisms.
Expected answers for activity 18.1.1
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms.
Activity 18.1.2
Discuss the characteristics and examples of both archaebacteria and Eubacteria.
Self-assessment 18.1
1) Describe the characteristics of the two domains of prokaryotes.
2) What factors can be used to identify prokaryotes?
3) How do bacteria maintain equilibrium in the environment?
4) Identify the parts of a prokaryote.
5) Describe briefly how some prokaryotes obtain their energy.
Expected answers for self-assessment 18.1
1) Archaebacteria lack peptidoglycan and their membrane lipids are quite different. Also, the DNA
of key Archaebacterial genes is like those of eukaryotes.
2) They are identified by their shapes, the chemical nature of their cell walls, the ways they move and
the ways they obtain energy.
3) Bacteria are essential to maintaining the living world. Some are producers, others are
decomposers, and others are useful to humans.
4) Cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, DNA, ribosomes, pili and flagella.
5) Some consume organic molecules synthesised by other living organisms while others make their
own food from simple inorganic molecules.
Activity 18.2.1
Using text books, videos or computer aided materials, describe the life of E. coli.
Activity18.3.1
Using textbooks, chart, videos or you tube, describe the structure, life cycle and
However, some biologists insist that they should be regarded as non-living things due to the fact
that:
- They cannot metabolize.
- They crystallize when in isolation.
- They cannot reproduce outside of host.
- They are not made of cells. This means that they have a relatively simple non-cellular organisation.
- They cannot respond to stimuli
- They have one type of nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA. But living cells contain both DNA and
RNA.
Self-assessment 18.3
1) What are the parts of a virus?
2) Describe the two ways by which viruses cause infection.
3) Distinguish between Bacteriophage and a prophage.
4) What is meant by retrovirus?
5) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the tobacco mosaic virus hypothesis?
6) Which characteristic feature is common to all viruses?
7) How is a capsid protein important to the functioning of a virus?
8) What is the best way to protect humans against most viral diseases?
Expected answer for self-assessment 18.3
1) A bacteriophage is a virus that infects bacteria while a prophage is the lysogenic viral DNA that is
embedded in the host’s DNA.
2) A retrovirus is a virus that contains RNA.
- In sexual reproduction, two cells fuse to form a diploid cell which then forms haploid spores by
meiosis
3) Budding is a type of asexual reproduction by which the new organism develops from an outgrowth
known as bud through cell division at one particular part.
Self-assessment 18.5
1) Which features does all yeast have in common?
2) How do hyphae of Penicillium differ from those of Mucor.
3) Describe the evidences for penicillin’s effectiveness.
Expected answer for self-assessment 18.5
1) Features that all yeast cells have in common are:
2) The hyphae of Penicillium have cross-walls called septa but the ones of Mucor do not have septa.
Activity 18.6
Observe prepared slides of Entamoeba hystolitica, Plasmodium and Trypanosoma to compare
their structures.
Expected answer for activity 18.6
To answer the activity 18.6 students will be using microscope to observe the structure of
Plasmodium, Entamoeba hystolitica, Trypanosoma structures on prepared slides. Then, ask them to
draw the viewed structure and compare them. Answers from students will not be similar. Guide them
to summarize their observations and come up with the common consensus.
Self-assessment 18.6
1) For malaria, name:
a) The causative agent.
b) The vector.
2) The diagram below shows the life cycle of plasmodium. Analyse it and then answer the questions
that follow.
a) Name A, B, C, and D.
b) HIV/AIDS is under retroviruses. What is meant by retroviruses?
c) What type of leucocytes (white blood cells) are destroyed by HIV/AIDS?
6) Discuss the methods of reducing the risk of food poisoning by pathogenic bacteria.
Moulds contain cells arranged in long thread-like filaments known as the hyphae, that form a mass
called Mycelium
3) Viruses are not generally considered to be living things because:
- They cannot metabolize
- They crystallize when in isolation.
- They cannot reproduce outside of host.
- They are not made of cells. This means that they have a relatively simple non-cellular organisation.
- They cannot respond to stimuli
- They have one type of nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA. But living cells contain both DNA and
RNA.
4) Answers:
a) Names of:
A: Cytoplasm
B: Mesosomes
C: Nucleoid region (DNA)
D: Flagellum
b) Importances of parts B, C and E
Parts Importances
B Respiration
C Carries genetic
information
5) Answers
c) White blood cells mainly destroyed by HIV/AIDS are called Helper T cells.
6) The methods of reducing the risk of food poisoning by pathogenic bacteria are:
- Storage and packaging
- Pasteurization and sterilization
7) The hyphae of Mucor is called coenocytic because the fungal tissue is not separated by cell walls.
8) Answer
a) Trypanosoma brucei
b) Name of the parts:
A: Metacyclic trypomastigote
B: Long slender form
C: Short stumpy form
D: Procyclic trypomastigote
E: Long epimastigote
F: Attached epimastigote
9) Groups of bacteria
a. Bacillus
b. Coccus
c. Spirillum
d. Spirochete
e. Vibrios
f. Streptococcus
g. Staphylococcus
h. Diplococci
i. Chain of bacilli
Expected answers
1) Prokaryote is a unicellular organism that lacks a membrane –bound nucleus, mitochondria and
other membrane-bound organelle.
2) Shapes of Eubacteria are:
a) Bacilli: rod-shaped
b) Cocci (sing. Coccus). Sphere-shaped
c) Spirilla: (sing. Spirillum). Spiral-shaped
3) Answers
a) True b) False c) True d) True e) False
4) The two main types of moulds are fungal moulds and non-fungal moulds
5) Penicillin has been discovered by a scientist Sir Alexander Fleming
6) Answers:
a) Structure of Trypanosoma cell
b) Tsetse fly
1) Uses of moulds
Even if species of Rhizopus and Mucor are responsible for the spoilage of food, they are also useful
as follow:
- They are used to make the human foods. For example, Mucor is used with soya beans to make a
cheese called sufu, in eastern Asia.
- In Indonesia, R. oligosporus and R. oryzae are used to produce a food called tempeh from boiled
skinless soya beans.
- The fungal moulds belonging to the Zygomycota are used to make anaesthetics, birth control pills,
meat tenderisers, and the yellow colouring agents used in margarines and butter substitutes.
2) Discovery of penicillium
Penicillin, the first antibiotic has been discovered in 1928 by a scientist Sir Alexander Fleming
when he was culturing some Staphylococcus bacteria during his medical research. He left some Petri
dishes for many days, and after he found a mouldy growth of Penicillium notatum contaminating a
corner of one of dishes. Then Fleming realised that Staphylococcus next to the mould has been
destroyed.
After studying Staphylococcus closely, Fleming concluded that the Penicillium mould was producing
a substance that killed the Staphylococcus. He carried on with finding out if the broth of Penicillium
mould contained penicillin which could destroy pathogenic bacteria.
3) The symptoms of Entamoeba histolytica are:
- The vectors for Trypanosoma cruzi include members of the order Hemiptera, such as assassin flies,
which ingest the amastigote or trymastigote and carry them to animals or humans.
- The parasites enter the human host through mucus membranes in the nose, eye, or mouth upon
release from the insect vectors. Left untreated, Chagas' disease may cause dementia, megacolon, and
megaesophagus, and damage to the heart muscle, and may result in death.
Activity 19.1
Using textbooks, YouTube and charts brainstorm the requirements for growth of
Answers for learning activity 19.1
Requirements for growth of microorganisms’ essential nutrients such as:
- Source of carbon, nitrogen, growth factors, mineral salts, source of energy and water.
- Environmental variables such as: temperature, pH, oxygen concentration and ionic and osmotic
balance.
microorganisms.
Self-assessment 19.3
From questions 1-5, circle the letter corresponding with the most correct answer
1) The method of culturing microorganisms in which all of the individuals in a culture have descended
from a single individual is called:
A Pure culture technique
B Spread plate technique
C Aseptic technique
D Liquid media method
2) In inoculating liquid medium, various instruments are used. Which one of the following is used to
transfer the sample to the medium?
A Sterile wire loop
B Inoculating needle.
C Petri-dishes
D None of these.
3) Large amounts of alcohol are dangerous to yeast during alcoholic fermentation. Which of the
following explains the reason how?
A It kills all the yeast and stops fermentation.
B Motivate yeasts
C It kills some few bacteria.
D Temperature affects fermentation.
4) The technique of using sterilized equipment and solutions and preventing their contamination while
in use is referred to as:
A Pure culture technique
B Spread plate technique
- The lag phase (a): period of adaptation of microorganisms to the new habitat thus slow growth.
- The log or exponential phase (b): period of high rate of reproduction thus rapid growth.
- The linear phase(c): the rate of reproduction slows down because of limiting factors. The limiting
factors of the growth of a population include the temperature, the light, the pressure, the space, the
amount of nutrients and metabolic waste products.
- The stationary phase (d): Stationary phase of plateau-growth slows down. The population remains
constant because the rate of dividing is equal to the rate of death within the population.
Activity 19.4.2
- Cultural media
- Selective media
- Differential media
- Transport media
- Indicator media
- Enriched media
2) Pure culture is a culture containing a growth of a single kind of microorganism free from other
organisms’ e.g. a single species of bacteria.
3) Gram-positive bacteria have a single cell wall layer absorb only the violet primary stain while
Gram-positive bacteria have a thin layer of peptidoglycans which the red stain that the bacteria
appear red.
4) Methods of preventing bacterial growth in food are: sterilization, use of disinfectants, food storage
and food processing.
5) Optimum temperature promotes bacterial growth, raising the temperature higher may reduce the
growth of bacteria and very low temperatures inhibit bacterial growth.
6) It would not be a good idea because vaccinations prevent infections rather than attacking and
destroying bacteria. The best way would be treating the infection with strong antibiotics.
7) Bacteria are essential to maintaining life on earth. Some are important producers, decomposers,
nitrogen fixers and others are useful to humans in various ways.
8) Gram –positive bacteria have only one cell membrane, while Gram-negative bacteria have second
outer layer of lipids and carbohydrates. Therefore, Gram-negative bacteria might more difficult to
kill.
9) An experiment to investigate how temperature affects reproduction and growth of bacteria. The
experiment is conducted as follows:
Materials required
- Glass-marking pencil
- 3 sterile agar plates
- Sterile cotton swabs
- Bacterial culture.
- After 24hours, examine each plate with a hand lens. Bacterial colonies look like small white or
white dots on agar surface, on the table above, record the number of bacterial colonies on each agar
plate. Then return each plate in its former location.
- After a second period of 24hrs, record in your data table in (a column of 48hrs) the number of
bacterial colonies on each agar plate.
- Return the agar plates to teacher for safe disposal.
10) Answers for:
a) Aseptic technique is using sterilized equipment and solutions and preventing their contamination
while in use. Sterilization is the removal or destruction of all living organisms, including spores
(inactive structures that enable some bacteria, algae, fungi and plants to survive through unfavorable
periods). Bacterial and fungal spores are abundant in most environments including laboratories.
b) In simple staining, all the bacteria and structures in general stain the same colour. In positive
staining, cells structures take in the stain e.g. methylene blue while in negative staining the cells
repel the stain and it is taken by the background e.g. Indian ink.
- Differential staining on the other hand, multiple staining reactions are used that take advantage of
the fact that particular types of microorganisms or specified structures of
microorganism display varied staining reactions that are readily distinguishable by different colours.
The purpose of staining bacteria is to see, for example, how thick of a layer of peptidoglycans
possessed by their cell wall.
- Growing viruses: The culture of viruses is made more difficult than the culture of bacteria or fungi
because viruses can only grow and multiply inside living cells. This can be done by infecting whole
organisms such as plants or animals but, where possible, cell, tissue cultures are now used. Viruses
cannot be grown in standard microbiological broths or on agar plates; instead they have to be
cultured inside suitable host cells.
d) Macronutrients include; these are required by microorganisms in relatively large amounts. Carbon,
oxygen, hydrogen nitrogen, sulfurs and phosphorous are components of carbohydrates, lipids,
proteins and nucleic acids.
19.9.2 Consolidation activities
1) Most fungi have evolved the ability to produce spores through both sexual and asexual
reproduction. How is this advantageous?
2) Why are microorganisms a serious problem, to agriculture in tropical regions of the world than
they are in temperate regions?
Consolidation answers
1) With both methods of reproduction, fungi increase their chance of reproducing in different
environmental conditions. Asexual reproduction is adaptive to more constant, favorable conditions,
whereas sexual reproduction is adaptive to those that are harsh and unstable.
2) Tropical regions are warmer, and have more moisture which is one of the favorable conditions for
growth of microorganisms.
Extension activities
1) The passage below describes how a student grows a culture of microorganisms on an agar plate.
Petri-dishes and culture medium containing agar, carbohydrate, protein and mineral ions are heated
to 120℃ for 15 minutes. The culture medium is poured into the Petri dishes and left to set. An
In each case, give one reason why the following procedures were carried out.
a) Carbohydrate was used in the culture medium.
b) The culture medium and Petri dishes were heated to 120℃ for 15minutes
c) The inoculating wire loop was cooled before being used to transfer microorganisms.
d) The Petri dish was sealed with adhesive tape.
e) The temperature at which the microorganisms are grown was not allowed to exceed25℃.
2) Suggest measures you can use to prevent food spoilage by microorganism.
3) An experiment was conducted to determine the effectiveness of different antibiotics against a
certain strain of bacteria. Four disks each soaked in different antibiotic were placed in Petri dish
where the bacteria were growing. The results are summarized below.
Effects of antibiotics
Self-assessment 20.1
1) What is biotechnology?
2) What do you understand with genetic engineering?
3) Discuss on the role of bacteria in Biotechnology and genetic engineering.
Self-assessment 20.2
1) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of immobilized enzymes.
2) Write on the use of pectinase in fruit juice production.
3) Explain the role of lactase inmaking lactose-free milk.
4) How are immobilized enzymes used in biosensors?
- The pectin content of the fruit is reduced, making the energy content of the juice lower.
- The pectin content of the fruit is reduced, making the juice easier to extract.
- The pectin content of the fruit is increased, giving the juice a thicker texture.
3) The role of lactase in making lactose-free milk:
- The enzyme lactase breaks down the sugar lactose, which is found in milk, into the sugars glucose
and galactose.
- Immobilized lactase can be used to produce lactose-free milk: normal milk is poured down a
column containing the immobilized lactase enzymes, which break down the lactose .
4) Expected answers are under the unit 20 (lesson two) in student book.
Activity 20.3
Visit a nearby bakery and verify how bread is prepared. Write a short report on the raw
materials and procedures used in making bread up to the final product.
Procedures
Procedures are summarized in the following four stages:
Step 1: Combine flour, yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in salt. Make a well in the centre. Add
milk and butter.
Step 2: Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture until well combined, then use your hands to bring the
dough together in the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the
dough is smooth and elastic.
Self-assessment 20.4
1) What is fermenter?
2) Write on upstream processing and downstream processing.
3) Write on your own word penicillin.
4) Contrast commercial-scale production from laboratory-scale production of penicillin.
5) Explain why the continuous culture is described as open system.
6) Explain why the batch culture is described as closed system.
7) Discuss advantages and disadvantages of batch culture?
8) Explain why continuous culture is very expensive.
9) What are Advantages and disadvantages of continuous culture?
1) A fermenter also known as a bioreactor is an apparatus that maintains optimal conditions for
culture and growth of microorganisms to be used in large-scale fermentation and in the commercial
production of antibiotics.
2) Downstream processing is a type of industrial production of penicillin that refers as the
extraction and purification of a biotechnological product from fermentation or at the end of culture
process. Usually the contents of fermenter are first separated into liquid component and a solid
Expected answer for activity 20.5 is in the students’ text book, unit 20, lesson 5.
Self-assessment 20.5
1) What do you understand by antibiotic resistance?
2) Explain how bacteria become resistant.
3) Discuss on how bacteria lose their antibiotic resistance.
4) Write on implications of antibiotic use.
5) Talk on how antibiotic resistance spreads.
Self-assessment 20.6
1) What part do acetogenic reactions play in the production of biogas?
2) The archaebacteria generate methane either by reducing the carbon dioxide, or
by converting acetate: write chemical equations for the two processes.
13) The production of biogas involves three stages and three communities of microorganisms namely
a) Anaerobic fermentation by eubacteria including lactobacillus, which converts the organic waste
into a mixture of organic acids and alcohol, with some Hydrogen, Carbon dioxide, and acetate.
b) Acetogenic (acetate-producing) reaction by bacteria such as acetobacterium which, in addition
to acetate, produce hydrogen and Carbon dioxide from the organic acid and alcohol.
c) Methanogenic (methane-producing) reactions by archaebacteria, including Methanobacterium,
Metanococcus, and Methanospirillum. The archaebacteria generate methane either:
- By reducing the carbon dioxide: CO2 + 4H2 CH4 + H2O, or
- By converting acetate: CH3COOH CH4 + CO2.
Additional activity
Remedial Activities
1) What do you understand with biotechnology?
2) Why are enzymes added to washing powder?
3) Describe the role of the fungus Penicillium in the production of the antibiotic penicillin.
4) Explain why the biological washing-powder should not be used in boiling water.
Answers for remedial activities
1) Biotechnology is a controlled and deliberate manipulation of biological systems (whether living
cells or cell components) for the efficient manufacture or processing of useful products.
2) The biological washing powders contain enzymes like protease and lipase to remove protein stains
and fat/grease from clothes. The enzymes break down proteins or fats on the fabric, forming water-
soluble substances that can be washed away.
3) Penicillin is produced commercially by growing the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum in large
stirred fermenters.
4) Enzymes are denatured at high temperature, and will not wash properly.
Consolidation activities
Describe the differences in the concentration of penicillin in the culture when the pH is controlled
and when the pH is not controlled.