Biology

A-Level Biology

Exam Board: OCR

Why study A-Level Biology?

Biology A-level will give you the skills to make connections and associations with all living things around you. Biology literally means the study of life and if that’s not important, what is? Being such a broad topic, you’re bound to find a specific area of interest, plus it opens the door to a fantastic range of interesting careers.

What will you study?

1. Biological molecules

2. Cells

3. How organisms exchange substances with their environment

4. Genetic information, variation and relationships between organisms

5. Energy transfers in and between organisms

6. How organisms respond to changes in their internal and external environments

7. Genetics, populations, evolution and ecosystems

8. The control of gene expression

Who is the course suitable for?

Biology, like all sciences, is a practical subject. Throughout the course you will carry out practical activities including using microscopes to see cell division, dissection of animal or plant systems, aseptic technique to study microbial growth, investigating activity within cells, scrutinising animal behaviours, and exploring distributions of species in the environment.

These practical tasks will give you the skills and confidence needed to analyse the way living things behave and work. It will also ensure that if you choose to study a Biology-based subject at university, you’ll have the practical skills needed to carry out successful experiments in your degree.

“Biology is bigger than physics. It enjoys bigger budgets, a bigger workforce, and achieves more major discoveries. Biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century.”

Freeman Dyson, theoretical physicist and mathematician