BTEC Applied Science Level 3 Unit 1: Principles and Applications of Biology Assignment Answer Sample

BTEC Applied Science Level 3 Assignments Answers

Level: 3
Unit type: External
Guided learning hours: 60

Unit 1 introduction

It is a duty of the scientists and technicians who serve in science and science-related organisations to be conversant with the fundamentals of science. A good understanding of these concepts will enable you to utilise and apply this knowledge and understanding in vocational settings when investigating other units of this specification.

Areas of topics addressed during this unit are:

• plant tissues, animal tissues and cells, as well as specialised cells.
• Human water, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids are biological molecules.
• cell transport
• enzymes activity

The professionals in science must learn the structure and functions of the cells. They build
on this knowledge to learn how the body can remain healthy and how to treat the symptoms and the causes of some diseases. This enables them to detect and cure diseases. The study of the idea of bacterial prokaryotic cells gives an insight into how other diseases are caused and can be treated. 

The food industry also requires scientists and technicians to compete with each other to develop food by understanding the structure and role of plant cells, yielding crops of higher production.
 
Your future studies in this unit will give you a solid foundation of what you will learn and understand. You are to advance in the science sector and various programmes related to science, as in the case of higher nationals and degrees.

Note: These sample for learning purposes only; do not copy and paste the information available on these samples exactly in your assignment. This will get you caught in plagiarism and can even disqualify you from your diploma course. So, rather than using the information from here, hire the one who wrote this sample; this will get you a good score and relief from the stress of the assignment. 

Summary of assessment: 

One examination of 50 marks with a duration of 1 hour will assess the unit. Types of questions to be used in the paper will include multiple choices, calculations, short answer and extended open responses.

These are the types of questions that will evaluate the knowledge and understanding of the content in this unit. The students will have to investigate and identify with situations and statistics.
 
The test can be assessed twice annually in January and May/ June. The earliest time of assessment will be May/June 2026. There will be sample assessment materials to assist centres in preparing the students for the assessment.

AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and theories, terminology, definitions and scientific formulae used in Biology.

Answer: 

1.  Anatomy: Basics of Cell Biology (Section A)

The unit of Biology is the cell. You should be in a position to know the two major types and what is contained in them.

• Prokaryotic Cells: These are what we can call the simple cells (as are the bacteria). They don't have a nucleus. Instead, they simply drift in the DNA of a region known as the nucleoid. They are also characterised by small loops of additional DNA known as plasmids and smaller 70S ribosomes.
• Eukaryotic Cells: These are complex cells (as are yours or those of a plant). They possess a correct nucleus to contain DNA and are enclosed within membrane-bound organelles. They minister to larger ribosomes (80S) to synthesise proteins.

Important Organelles:

• Mitochondria: This is the location of aerobic respiration where ATP (energy) is produced.
• Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum (RER): This is a web of ribosome-covered networks that synthesise and deliver proteins.
• Golgi Apparatus: the post office of the cell; it alters and wraps the proteins in vesicles.
• Chloroplasts (Plants only): These are the ones that absorb the sunlight and convert it into food.

2. The Biological Molecules (Section B) section covers topics such as:

The Basics of Biological Molecules: Biological molecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, solubility, and reversible reactions (Deal, 2004). There are only a few building blocks of life. You must know their names and their business.

• Carbohydrates: These are energy-giving.

o    Monosaccharides: Monosaccharides, such as Glucose.
o    Polysaccharides: These are long chains such as Starch (energy storage in plants) or Glycogen (energy storage in humans).

• Proteins: Made of amino acids. Their shape is everything. When a protein denatures its shape (because of heat or pH), then we say that it has been denatured.
• Fats and oils: This is referred to as lipids. They are excellent storage of long-term energy and in the formation of cell membranes(phospholipids).

3. Cell Transport: Transport of Molecules (Section C.) 

Transport of Ions (Section C.6) Transport of Solutes (Section C.7) Transport of Drugs and Macromolecules (Section C.11) Transport of Hormones (Section C.15) Transport of Pigments (Section C.16) Transport of Energy (Section C.17) Autophagy (Section C.18) Endocytosis (Section C.19) Lysosomal Formation (Section C.21)

What is the mechanism of entry and exit of things into and out of the cells, and what is the mechanism of reactions?

• Diffusion: Molecules flow out of the areas where they are found in abundance to those areas where they are found in lower concentration (high to low concentration). It is passive, that is, it does not consume any energy.
• Active Transport: The molecules drift (from low to high concentration). This requires ATP (energy).
• Enzymes: These are biocatalysts. They increase the rate of chemical reactions and are not used up. They contain a particularly designed active site into which a substrate fits, like a lock and key.

4. Important Words and Equations. 

To score the highest possible in AO1, you must know the correct words of science and be familiar with the math.

• Homeostasis: The method through which the body maintains a constant internal environment (e.g., keeps your body temperature at 37 °C).
• Negative Feedback: A mechanism whereby the body detects a change and reacts to it in some manner (e.g. you feel hot, so your body sweats to cool you down).
• Pathogen: A fancy word for a germ (bacteria or virus) that causes disease. The Magn Much of it is still recalled as the AIM triangle.

AO2 Apply knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and theories, procedures, processes and techniques in Biology.

Answer:

1. Bridging Cell Structures to Function.

You will not simply name the organelles in your assessment; you will also state the reason why a particular cell has more of them.

• Sperm Cells: Why are there so many mitochondria? Since they are required to produce large quantities of ATP (energy) to drive the flagellum to move towards the egg.
• White Blood Cells (Leucocytes): These cells have high lysosomes. Why? Since lysosomes hold digestive enzymes that disintegrate and digest pathogens (bacteria/viruses), they have ingested them.
• Palisade Mesophyll (Leaf Cells): This is filled with chloroplasts and is formed vertically on top of the leaf. It is a process of maximising light that can be used to carry out photosynthesis.

2. Using Tissues to Health and Disease.

It is here that you use biology in medical cases, such as those in your brief:

• Gas Exchange in the Lungs: The alveoli contain squamous epithelium, which is just a cell thick. This applies the concept of diffusion; the shorter the distance, the faster oxygen can move into the blood.
• COPD and the Ciliated Cells: In a normal lung, the columnar cells have cilia, which sweep off the dirt and mucus using small hairs. These cells are damaged in an individual with COPD. This implies that the mucus accumulates, the pathogens remain in the lungs, and the individual develops a kind of cough, that of a smoker, in an attempt to clear the accumulated buildup in his or her lungs.
• Atherosclerosis: This begins at the point of destroying the endothelial lining of an artery (typically by high blood pressure or smoking). This initiates an action whereby fats accumulate, forming a plaque that reduces the vessel.

3. The method of applying the Nerve Impulse as a Mechanism.

You should describe the mechanism of the translocation of a signal along a nerve.

• Saltatory Conduction: The fatty myelin sheath around the neuron serves as an insulator in a myelinated neuron. Rather than the signal crawling along the entire nerve, it jumps along on a Node of Ranvier to another. This causes the impulse to travel much faster compared to the absence of myelination in a nerve.
• Synaptic Transmission: When a signal comes to the termination of a nerve, it will not be able to jump over (the synapse). Rather, it causes the technology to release neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) into the gap to convey the message to the next cell.

4. Use of Homeostasis: Negative Feedback.

What is the way the body corrects an issue? Think of it like a loop:

• Stimulus: Your blood sugar becomes excessively high (following the intake of food).
• Receptor: High glucose is detected by the pancreas.
• Effector: Pancreas secretes the insulin hormone.
• Response: Liver and muscles absorb the glucose and store it as glycogen, restoring normal levels of blood sugar.

5. The Process of Applying Laboratory Techniques.

To AO2, in the section called techniques, you must know how to test the molecules we discussed:

AO3 Analyse and interpret scientific information in Biology.

Answer:

1. Analysis of Graphs: The Nerve Impulse.

One of the traditional AO3 tasks in this unit is the explanation of a graph of an action potential (a nerve impulse). You must be in a position to narrate the story of the line:

• The Upward Slope (Depolarisation): It is when the line jumps up that the sodium channels are open, and the sodium ions (Na+) are flooding into the neurone.
• The Peak: This is the maximum voltage (typically of the order of +40mV).
• The Downward Slope (Repolarisation): The curve is decreasing as potassium channels open and potassium ions (K+) rush out to attempt to restore the equilibrium.
• Specifically, there is the Dip (hyperpolarisation): Sometimes the line decreases too far and then levels off; a kind of refractory period during which the nerve rests to prevent the signal from flowing back.

2. Analysing Enzyme Data

You may have provided a table of the rate of various enzymes at various temperatures. To examine this correctly, there are three things to look out for:

• The Trend: Does the rate increase with an increase in temperature? (Yes, typically, faster and hitting each other).
• The Optimum: Which point in particular is the quickest reaction? This is the "peak" of your data.
• The Drop-off: Once the temperature exceeds a certain point (typically above 45 o C), the rate levels off. This would be considered by you as the tertiary structure of the enzyme, altering the active location and denaturing it.

3.  Comparative Cell Types (Microscopy).

AO3 tends to have you examine electron micrographs (high-resolution black-and-white pictures of cells) and figure out what is happening.

• Analysis: When you look at a cell and notice an enormous number of mitochondria and folded membranes in it, you can determine that this cell is metabolically active, that it is working hard (as in a muscle cell or a sperm cell).
• Differentiation: When you observe a cell wall and a large central vacuole, then you are viewing a plant cell. When you look at the outside, and there is a capsule or "pili", then you have a prokaryote (bacteria).

4. Calculating the Surface Area to Volume Ratio (SA: V)

It is one of the major ones in biological transport. The bigger the organism becomes, the slower its surface area increases as compared to its volume.

• Small Organisms (such as bacteria): these are characterised by a large $SA: V$ ratio. You would say this is to imply that they can depend on simple diffusion to acquire oxygen since their skin is large enough to provide for their small insides.
• Large Organisms (such as people): we are low in $SA: V$ ratio. We cannot live on diffusion through our skin. This leads to us having specialised surfaces of exchange, such as the alveoli in the lungs, that serve to artificially enlarge our surface area.

5. The Analysis of Experimental Results (The “How Good is it? part)

You should consider the validity when considering a study, e.g. the impact of a new antibiotic on Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria:

• Gram-Positive: These contain a thick layer of peptidoglycan that is highly susceptible to the absorption of antibiotics.
• Gram-Negative: they possess an additional outer lipid membrane. When an experiment indicates that an antibiotic failed to act on them, the analysis would be that the outer membrane was a kind of barrier.
• Data Reliability: It is important to always ask whether or not the experiment is repeated. Does the graph have any error bars? When the bars intersect, then the possibilities that the results are significant are low!

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