STAGE 2

Biology
A S S E S S M E N T R E P O R T 2 0 0 8

Science Learning Area

BIOLOGY
2008 ASSESSMENT REPORT
GENERAL COMMENTS Student achievement in the 2008 Biology examination was similar to the results achieved in recent years. The mean score for the 2008 examination was 59.9%, which compares with previous means of 58.4% (2007), 58.7% (2006), 56.7% (2005), 59.8% (2004), and 59.4% (2003). The range of examination marks was from 8 to 195 out of a possible 200. The mean marks for Sections A, B and C were 65.3%, 59.4% and 53.9%, respectively. ASSESSMENT COMPONENT 1: EXAMINATION SECTION A: MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS Forty-four students scored full marks in Section A. The means of facilities and ranges of facilities for each of the last six years are shown below. (The facility for a question is the percentage of students who gave the correct response.)
Year 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Mean (%) 65.4 61.5 62.9 65.2 71.2 62.4 Range (%) 17 to 86 28 to 92 20 to 96 27 to 89 24 to 90 26 to 86

The examiners attempt to produce multiple-choice questions that vary in difficulty from easy knowledge through to difficult knowledge and problem-solving. This variation in question difficulty is reflected in the range of the question facility as seen in the table above. Most questions are also intentionally discriminating so that, ideally, less knowledgeable students are likely to choose the four responses with equal frequency, whereas more capable students will show a distinct preference for the correct response. Data from the 2008 multiple-choice questions show that the top 10% of students preferred the correct response for every question.

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The table below indicates the percentage of responses for each alternative for each question in Section A.
Question 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Percentage of Responses for Each Alternative J K L M 84 2 4 10 45 5 48 2 64 10 16 11 5 6 69 19 6 11 7 75 21 41 7 31 3 5 86 6 2 73 2 23 5 76 5 14 52 29 7 12 6 5 33 56 11 20 5 64 9 17 60 14 6 2 13 80 83 5 5 6 31 17 24 27 21 74 3 2 9 12 2 77 1 10 86 3 6 14 4 76 8 20 66 6 4 65 8 23 32 5 20 43 50 13 22 15 69 18 7 6

Comments on selected multiple-choice questions follow. Question 2 The majority of the more able students answered this question correctly. The popularity of alternative J indicates that many students ignored the fact that Mary and William could not be identical twins. Alternative L would most likely have alerted them to this. It is important that students read all alternatives before selecting their answer. Question 6 It should be noted that the wording of questions is chosen carefully and deliberately. This question asks which one of the responses will result from an increase in body temperature, not which one will result in an increase in body temperature. Question 10 The ATP cycle continues to be a mystery to some students. As for question 6, it is important to be able to distinguish between results from and results in. However, the most popular incorrect alternative, K, indicates that there continues to be a fundamental lack of understanding of energy input and output.

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Question 11 It was surprising to note the number of students who were unable to distinguish between natural selection and geographical isolation. Question 16 Students clearly found it difficult to distinguish the terms haploid and diploid. In this question, the answer that looked, at first glance, to be incorrect, was the correct response. Alternatives J and L represent a diploid number of 12, not 6, while alternative M shows a pair containing two paternal chromosomes. Question 22 Two important features of exchange surfaces are surface area (compared to volume) and thinness. The relatively high percentage of students who chose alternative M indicates that there is some confusion between the two. Question 23 An increase in the number of samples will decrease the effect of random errors, but nothing will decrease random errors. They are an unavoidable result of all measurements. A decrease in random errors will result in an increase in precision, but not an increase in accuracy. The accuracy of an experimental value indicates how close the result is to the true value. Question 24 The surprisingly high number of students who chose alternative L apparently confused mitosis and meiosis.

SECTION B: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS In general, 2 marks are allocated for one well-expressed piece of information. Questions that require an explanation are worth 4 marks and, therefore, in order to obtain full marks, students must supply two relevant and connected pieces of information. The mean mark for Section B was 59.4%. As with Section A, the examiners aim to produce short-answer questions that vary in difficulty from easy knowledge through to difficult knowledge and problem-solving. The mean mark for each question is shown in the table below.
Question 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Mean Mark/Maximum Mark 4.9/8 8.0/14 7.8/14 4.8/8 12.5/16 5.4/12 5.5/8 2.9/6 9.4/16 10.1/18 Mean Mark (%) 61.3 57.1 55.7 60.0 78.1 45.0 68.8 48.3 58.8 56.1

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Teachers and students should note the following. Many students fail to gain marks as a result of misinterpretation of questions. Students are encouraged to read questions carefully so their responses are relevant to the questions asked. Many students ignore the instruction to give one fact or reason and, instead, give multiple answers. Students are reminded that in this circumstance any single wrong answer will lose the student all relevant marks. A number of students rewrite or paraphrase the question. There are no marks for this and valuable examination time is wasted through this practice. Many students are careless in their use of biological language. Students who do not correctly use terms from the curriculum statement will be penalised. Students are reminded that they may use the additional page in each booklet if more space is needed to answer a question. However, students should make clear in the first part of their answer that the extended answer is given on another page. Students are also reminded to use the additional page in the same booklet as the question appears.

Question 26 (a) Most students were able to correctly name molecule Z as a phospholipid. Naming it as a lipid gained only partial credit. Misspelling this curriculum statement term also reduced credit for the answer. (b) There were several clues in the diagram that enabled students to name the process of movement as active transport. The most common incorrect answer was facilitated diffusion. (c) Students seemed to either get 4 or zero for this part. Those who scored zero tended to describe the function of inhibitors rather than how the inhibition affected the movement of the molecule. Many successful students highlight key words in a question, and that practice paid dividends in this case. Those who correctly read the question generally knew that active transport requires energy and that inhibiting aerobic respiration reduces the energy available for active transport. To gain full marks, answers needed to clearly state the consequence of this on the movement of molecule Y. Question 27 (a) Glucose was a common correct answer. Many incorrect answers gave the name of a product rather than a substrate. (b) Despite being told that yeast is a eukaryotic organism, many students gave binary fission as the answer. Others stated that asexual reproduction was the type of cell division. (c) Some answers simply paraphrased the question and stated that the consequence was limited variation. These answers received no credit. It was generally understood that the lack of genetic diversity was a risk, but few answers clearly articulated it as susceptibility to changed environments. Many responses referred to increased risk of extinction if a new disease appeared. (d) Most students knew that a restriction enzyme would be needed to cut the plasmid, but only the better answers stated that the gene would have had to be cut with the same restriction enzyme to expose complementary sticky ends. (e) Most students were able to give an example of genetic modification of an organism, but many could not identify an advantage to society, instead providing advantages to individuals, such as improving the health of a person with diabetes or increasing the income of a farmer.

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Question 28 (a) It is disappointing that some students had not learnt this definition from the curriculum statement. (b) (i) The most common correct answer was the inability of the population to produce fertile offspring. A common incorrect answer was to make vague reference to differences in colour or size. (ii) Most students were able to state a reproductive isolating mechanism. (c) To gain full credit, students needed to link the effect of different selection pressures acting on the beetle populations to the outcome of reproductive isolation. Whilst most students made reference to the former concept, the latter was less successfully covered. (d) The most common answer to this question involved a description of DNA-DNA hybridisation. This was reasonably well done. However, to gain the final 2 marks, students needed to link the degree of similarity of DNA to the degree of relatedness. This was not so well done. Question 29 (a) Students found it a challenge to link vasodilation and shivering to either increased heat loss or reduced heat production. Many were not familiar with vasodilation, describing it as blood vessels moving closer to the skin rather than just widening to allow more blood to flow near the skin. More students were able to correctly describe shivering. (b) Very few students had difficulty in stating a benefit of drugs used in general anaesthetics. However, in attempting to find a harmful effect, many resorted to repeating information provided in the question, a strategy that earned them no credit. Question 30 (a) The majority of graphs were done well. Most commonly marks were lost for poor lines of best fit, an uneven scale along an axis, or extrapolating the line back to zero. (b) Most correctly identified the independent variable. (c) There was a range of correct conclusions that students could make. It was clear that many students were uncertain about the difference between a conclusion and a pattern of results. (d) (i) Only the better students gave answers relating the effect of a low temperature to the energy of the molecules. Most simply stated that it was too cold for the enzymes to work. (ii) The concept of enzymes denaturing at high temperatures seemed to be well known. (e) Whilst the majority of students realised that to be 99% effective there had to be 1% of the substrate remaining, others were less astute and incorrectly stated 55oC as the answer. Question 31 (a) Many answers correctly identified the trend that more water consumed produces a lower concentration of urea in the urine. Too many answers made no specific reference to the data (either quantitatively or qualitatively) and so did not gain the final 2 marks. A number of answers confused the concentration of urea and the amount of urea. (b) There was much confusion between filtration and reabsorption as the process that most influences the amount of water in the urine. Some answers focused on the reabsorption of urea when the reabsorption of water was the key to the answer. A number of answers explained nephron function in some detail (including the process of osmosis) with little regard to the question that was asked.

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(c) There is considerable misunderstanding relating to the concepts of accuracy, precision and reliability. In addition, there was a poor understanding of the terms repetition and replication, and their importance in experimental design. The information that the investigation was completed on a hot day proved to be a distraction, as did the idea that two different people were used, even though it was stated that all other factors were kept constant. Question 32 (a) Most answers were correct. Only a few discussed non-structural differences. (b) Again, well answered. A very small proportion of answers included T (thymine), not U (uracil). (c) Many answers scored at least 2 out of 4 but the connection between the miRNA blocking the codon and the prevention of translation was not as well articulated. Some otherwise good answers confused transcription and translation or suggested that the miRNA would alter the mRNA sequence. Question 33 (a) This was not well answered. Many answers were more appropriate to part (b) and did not focus on evidence that indicated that one type of cell existed before another. Answers that did gain marks usually related to the simplicity of prokaryotes and the complexity of eukaryotes. Fossil evidence also featured in the correct responses but few singled out the difference in the complexity of the DNA and chromosome/s. (b) Good answers correctly identified the evidence and went on to explain it well. Simply naming organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts was a common fault, but many continued to explain how these organelles provided evidence for endosymbiosis. Many answers stated that such organelles have double membranes without mentioning that the membranes show characteristic differences. Question 34 (a) There were a lot of answers that recognised that the environment was changed (as stated in the question), but a much smaller proportion could explain that this would give an advantage to a different variety of species. Many answers discussed speciation, and thus missed the point of the question. (b) This was generally well done. The few incorrect answers often included the idea that energy was recycled in an ecosystem. (c) Although the equation in the curriculum statement mentions energy, the inclusion of it in the answer to this question was optional. However, the addition of ATP as a product is incorrect, and was penalised. Some students were distracted by the mention of methane and tried to incorporate it into the equation. (d) Though many answers gained marks for correctly identifying the process of photosynthesis as that which removes CO2 from the atmosphere, the term sinks was not always understood. There was much confusion over how carbon became stored in plants and some answers demonstrated a poor understanding that the carbon referred to is originally in the form of CO2. Carbon dioxide was frequently described as being converted to oxygen or being trapped (for later use) in the tissues of the plant. Even the better answers often stopped short of explaining how plants can store carbon in forms other than glucose. (e) Most answers correctly identified the likely trend (decrease in atmospheric CO2) as a result of decreased aerobic respiration by decomposers or increased photosynthesis by more trees. Some answers defied their own logic and suggested these events will lead to an increase in CO2 levels.

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Question 35 (a) The most common correct answers were nutrient levels, hormones and space (or contact inhibition). Many answers that failed to gain marks included internal factors such as MPF, Cdk and cyclin, suggesting a poor understanding of the mechanism of regulation. A number of answers included factors that would interrupt the cell cycle but not regulate it (e.g. radiation, toxins). (b) Markers commented on the number of answers that were not in the form of a hypothesis, or not relating the concentration of olomoucine to the effect on the cell cycle. Students need clear guidelines on how to write a suitable hypothesis linking an independent and dependent variable. (c) This was generally well answered. The idea that cancer cells are undergoing uncontrolled cell division seems to be well understood. A small proportion of answers correctly suggested that lung cells were used because the inhibitor was known to be effective in these cells. Some students thought that researchers were looking for a cure for cancer. (d) This was generally well done, with temperature and pH being the most common correct responses. The most common incorrect responses indicated a poor understanding of the question and included concentrations of MPF, Cdk, cyclin and, even, olomoucine (the independent variable). Though the source of the cancer cells was seen as something that should have been kept constant, the type of cell used was not. (e) (i) This question was generally well answered. Answers that did not score full marks often referred only to MPF or cyclin, but not both. (ii) Not all answers showed an understanding of the connection to part (i) and so this part was not as well done. There were often extensive descriptions of how enzyme inhibition (both competitive and non-competitive) occurs.

SECTION C: EXTENDED-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Each extended-response question is marked out of 15, with 12 marks being allocated for content (each well-made point is worth 2 marks) and 3 marks for communication. Questions 36 and 37 each had three content parts, with each part being marked out of 4. In awarding a communication mark, the following factors were taken into account: Is the response at least half a page in length and is it structured in the form of sentences and paragraphs? Does the response use correct grammar and spelling? Does the response clearly explain concepts using relevant and concise biological language?

Students should be able to fully answer an extended-response question in about one page of writing. It is unnecessary for students to re-write the question or to provide an introduction to their response. Both of these practices are time wasting and receive no credit, and may even result in a reduction in the communication mark.

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Question 36 The mean mark for this question was 58.2%, with 3.1% of students receiving the full 15 marks. Dot point 1 Students were required to talk about the sun as the main source of energy in most communities, the conversion of light energy to chemical energy via photosynthesis, its availability to consumers via consumption, and its release via respiration. Students were quite well versed with the first two concepts and gained half marks for very good descriptions of photosynthesis, but got only one extra mark for mentioning consumption. Only the better students explained the idea that the energy stored in glucose was liberated through respiration. Most students went on to talk about trophic levels and the amount of energy made available at each level, thus ignoring the inherent biochemistry of the question. There is still a good deal of confusion about energy conversions. Too many students had the idea of the sun as the original source of energy, but then saw energy as being converted into glucose without reference to chemical bonds. Dot point 2 There was some confusion about the meaning of the term productivity and this led to poor quality answers. Better students saw it as the rate of photosynthate production and hence linked it with the amount of light, availability of water and temperature. The mid-range students talked about specific factors associated with productivity from a dictionary perspective (i.e. how much is produced for the next level), and so talked about factors that could decrease it. These factors included introduced species, natural disasters, and deforestation. The weaker students mentioned biotic and abiotic factors with a list of ideas, but not much connection with the concept. Some students misinterpreted productivity as reproductivity and talked about r- and Kselected species. The word describe is not fully understood by students. Teachers could help here by pointing out that description requires a full account of the connection between two concepts, rather than just a word, statement or list. Markers should not be expected to guess where the connection lies. Dot point 3 Most students stated two factors for variation, these coming from crossing over, independent or random assortment, fertilisation and mutation, and hence gained 2 marks. Far too many students struggled with adequate biological explanations of the concepts. Homologous chromosomes were mentioned but the behaviour of chromatids was not often made clear. Many students did not appear to understand the concept that fertilisation is a random process that provides further genetic variation in offspring. Natural selection was often mentioned, although it was not relevant in the context of the question.

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Question 37 The mean mark for this question was 49.7%, with 4.1% of students receiving the full 15 marks. Dot point 1 Students had to provide a list with explanatory comments about the conditions required for cell culturing. This was generally well done with most students gaining 2 marks for a list of more than three items. The explanations needed to be linked to the specific factors cited. Sterile conditions and their impact on cell cultures was the most popular choice. Dot point 2 This part required students to provide definitions of a cell, tissue, organ and system and to provide an example or description of each. It was very poorly done, considering the question looked easy and most teachers would think that this item was based on recall rather than understanding. Many students missed the concept of hierarchy altogether. There are quite a lot of misconceptions amongst students about the meaning of describe. Better students gave full definitions and examples that tied them together. Such answers were not common. Dot point 3 Students could explain that genetically identical human stem cells could undergo mitotic cell division, and differentiate to become specialised. While very few students mentioned the importance of mitosis, many were quite well versed in the terms differentiation and specialisation, and talked about selective gene expression. Many also discussed genes being turned off, and the best answers went on to discuss the different gene products/proteins resulting in different cell structures and functions. Many students mentioned in vivo differentiation of stem cells, but most who went down this path did not understand the mechanism. There was much discussion about the miracle nature of stem cells and the uses to which they could be put, indicating a high level of interest in classrooms about this topic.

Chief Assessor Biology

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