AS Science in Society – Revision checklist
AS Revision checklist
What we have provided below is a quick checklist of the most important
concepts in each topic. It doesn’t cover the whole specification. Use the
check list to guide your revision and test yourself regularly on the concepts
listed. Then try the revision questions we have provided as well as past
exam questions or exam style questions from the web site.
The Tips highlight essential skills and knowledge that are often needed in
the exam. Examiners regularly see papers where candidates lose marks
because they don’t get these right.
3.1.1 Germ theory of disease and 3.1.2 Infectious
disease
Science
Microbes
The differences between bacteria and viruses
Examples of infectious disease, how they are spread and appropriate
preventive measures
Public health measures and why they work including: clean water
Nutrition, Vaccination and Housing
How antibiotics work
The development of resistance to antibiotics and how best to prevent it.
Immunity
Main features and functions of the immune system
Stimulation of immunity by infection and by vaccinations
How Science works
Epidemiology – public health indicators and how to collect them
Epidemiology - cause and correlation
Some factors that affect health, including economic factors
Use of GDP as an indicator of income
An example of how a science explanation was changed
The role of the media in issues such as a flu epidemic, HIV or MMR
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AS Science in Society – Revision checklist
Tips - knowledge
Explain how antibiotic resistance develops
Don’t confuse bacteria and viruses
Tips- skills
Ability to describe a relationship between variables and to draw
conclusions
3.1.3 Transport issues
Science
Chemical reactions
The meaning of the terms element, compounds and chemical reaction
A description of the reaction between a hydrocarbon such as gas or oil
and oxygen
Energy
Units
Transfer of energy
Energy efficiency
The environmental impacts of different fuels
How Science works
Data
Random and systematic errors in data and how to deal with them
The mean of a stet of data
Ways of representing the spread of values around the mean
Using error bars to draw conclusions about the significance of differences
between means
Sampling from a population to get the best chance that the sample
represents the population
Causal links
Air pollution and illness - weighing up evidence
Decision making
Weighing up costs and benefits of different fuels or modes of transport
How projections of future fuel use are made and some of the assumptions
required
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AS Science in Society – Revision checklist
Tips - skills
calculate energy efficiency
draw conclusions from air pollution data and explain reasons for your
conclusions
discuss projections and their limitations
Tips - knowledge
chemical reactions
3.1.4 Medicines and 3.1.5 Ethical issues in medicine
Science
Cells tissues specialisation of function
Stem cells
Cloning
How Science works
Data
The meaning of error bars
Causal links
Sampling from a population to get the best chance that the sample
represents the population
The importance of a control group
Randomisation
How to avoid introducing bias
Design of a clinical trial
Double blind and why it is needed
Placebo effect
The scientific community
Scientific journals and the sharing of knowledge
Scientific journals and the importance of peer review
Patents
Decision making – ethics
Ethics of research on animals
Ethics of using people as experimental subjects in clinical trials
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AS Science in Society – Revision checklist
Tips - skills
Ability to interpret results from a clinical trial and to judge whether you
think the differences are significant
Discuss ethical issues associated with medicines
Tips – knowledge
Ability to explain the design of a clinical trial and the reasons for its main
features
3.1.6 Reproductive choices
Science
Genes, chromosomes and inheritance
Diseases caused by a single gene, recessive and dominant
Techniques for antenatal testing
Genetic screening and its uses and limitations
Techniques of IVF and PGD
Stem cells
How Science works
Data
The meaning of the terms false positive and false negative in results of
genetic tests
Decision making
The ethical principles that can be used in decisions about reproductive
choices such as abortion or PGD
How society should regulate the use of new reproductive technologies
Use of stem cells, how it should be regulated
Tips - skills
Argue your own position on an ethical issue and back it up with evidence
Tips - knowledge
Draw a family tree and use it to explain patterns of inheritance of genetic
diseases
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AS Science in Society – Revision checklist
3.1.7 Radiation
Science
Ionising and non-ionising radiation
The range of energy in electromagnetic radiation
Structure of an atom, isotopes
Radioactive decay
Half life
Alpha, beta and gamma radiation
Emissions per second (bequerels)
Radiation dose equivalent, (sieverts)
Radiation harm to living organisms
Irradiation and contamination
Background radiation
How Science works
Causal links
Ways of determining risk using cohort studies
Difficulty of proving that radiation does not cause harm in low risk cases
such as mobile phones or power lines
Risk
Ways of expressing risk, as a one in ... Probability and as a percentage
The difference between relative risk and absolute risk
Why people are willing to accept some risks and not others
Different approaches to management of risk, ‘as low as reasonably
achievable’, cost benefit or precautionary?
Tips – knowledge
types of radiation
radiation dose
Tips – skills
simple half-life calculations
translate measures of risk from one form to another
evaluate risk claims
discuss decision making on radiation issues such as nuclear power in
terms of risks and benefits
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AS Science in Society – Revision checklist
3.1.8 Lifestyle and health
Science
How cancer occurs
Role of several genes and the environment in most diseases
The difference between mixtures and compounds
How Science works
Data
Ways of indicating the spread of values about a mean
Deciding whether a small difference in means is significant when the
means represent a wide spread of values
Causal links
Ways of designing a study including the importance of control groups
Confounding variables
Prospective, cohort studies and retrospective, case control studies and the
advantages and disadvantages of each
Interpreting scattergraphs
Correlation does not prove causation
Need for a plausible mechanism to increase confidence that correlation
indicates causation
Scientific community
Need for replication of results before they are accepted
Factors that influence judgement on whether to trust a scientist’s
conclusions
Tips - skills
interpretation of data on a health risk presented in various ways
critical discussion of media claims about risks
3.1.9 Evolution
Science
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The timescale of life on Earth and some of the uncertainties
The fossil record
The process of natural selection involving variation between individuals,
natural selection of those best suited to the environment and inheritance of
advantageous characteristics leading to gradual change in the species
over a long time scale.
New species will arise if the changes are so great that they no longer
interbreed with others of the original species.
Interdependence and competition in an ecosystem
How Science works
Developing and testing science explanations
The role of imagination and conjecture in developing a new scientific
theory
The theories for the origin of species before Darwin
The evidence that stimulated Darwin and Wallace to propose a new theory
The power of the theory of evolution by natural selection to explain
observations and to make predictions
Some modern evidence for the theory
Acceptance of the theory in Darwin’s time and now
Tips – skills
Use the theory to explain some biological event described in the question
3.1.10 The Universe
Science
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A description of the solar system
The origin and age of the solar system
Gravity
Galaxies
The Universe and its origin in the Big Bang
Use of radiation from distant bodies to find out about the Universe
How Science works
A scientific law, like the law of gravity
An example of one of the stages that led to the development of our current
understanding of the Universe including the role of both evidence and of
imagination
The influence of previous scientific work on scientific advances
The development of a consensus as more evidence becomes available
The value of specific predictions that then found to agree with new
evidence in encouraging the acceptance of a new theory
Tips – skills
Interpret an account of theory change in terms of HSW ideas on
developing and testing scientific explanations
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