S3 Biology:
Reporting Window 2

Level delivery in Biology

Biology Units in S3 cover content from L4 and expose pupils to some content at L5.

Science Skills are focussed at L3/4.

Units covered across the year

Cells and DNA

This unit explores themes such as: cell structure; specialised and unspecialised cells; cell division; cancer; structure of DNA; DNA profiling and genetic engineering.

Enzymes

This unit explores themes such as: proteins; structure and function of enzymes; specific enzyme reactions and practical uses of enzymes.

Microorganisms

Role of microorganisms in disease and vaccination.

Multicellular organisms

This unit explores features of living organisms (predominantly humans) which are made of trillions of cells across systems and organs.  We look at control and communication, inheritance, transport systems and absorption.

The Environment and Biodiversity

This unit explores themes such as: interactions in ecosystems; biomes; food chains; food webs and competition.

Pupils coping with the majority of the Biology work being set should be able to achieve at least Fourth C in this subject.

S4 Recommendation:

Pupils currently working at Fourth C upwards would be recommended for N5 Biology.  The Level 5 NPA in Applied Science with Forensics may be a preferable choice for those operating at Fourth D as all content is assessed on an ongoing basis and there is no final examination.  Those working at Third level would be recommended for the Level 4 NPA in Science and Health.

Working Level and Working Grade descriptions for S3 Biology:

Fourth A: A pupil achieving this will be making excellent progress across all their assessments (averaging 90% or more of the Level 4 questions).  These pupils may also be demonstrating an ability to apply knowledge at Level 5 at times.  They will be consistently demonstrating that they understand and can recall the content of the course and are able to apply that understanding to context-based questions.  They will also have demonstrated a sound ability to handle data – calculations and graphs. 

Fourth B: A pupil achieving this will be making very good progress across all their assessments (averaging 80-89% in Level 4 questions). They will be demonstrating that they understand and can recall much of the content of the course and are able to apply that understanding to some context-based questions.  They will also have demonstrated an ability to handle some data – calculations and graphs. 

Fourth C: A pupil achieving this will be making good progress across all their assessments (averaging 60-79% of Level 4 questions). They will be demonstrating that they understand and can recall some of the content of the course and may be able to apply some of that understanding to more straight-forward context-based questions.  They may also have demonstrated an ability to handle some data – calculations and graphs. 

Fourth D: A pupil achieving this will be making reasonable progress across all their assessments (averaging 50-59% of Level 4 questions). They will be demonstrating that they understand and can recall some of the content of the course and may be challenged by applying this knowledge to context-based questions.  They may also find challenge in handling data – calculations and graphs. 

Third A-D: A pupil achieving this will be making limited progress across all their assessments (averaging less than 50% of Level 4 questions but scoring at least 50% of Level 3 questions). They may be demonstrating that they understand and can recall small portions of the content of the course but will likely find applying this content to context questions a great challenge.  They will also, likely find challenge in handling data – calculations and graphs.