Science: Required Practicals

Biology Practicals
Biology Paper 1
(1) Microscopy:
1. Add a drop of water to the middle of a clean slide.
2. Cut up an onion and separate it out into layers. Use tweezers to peel off some epidermal
tissue from the bottom of one of the layers.
3. Using tweezers, place the epidermal tissue into the water on the slide.
4. Add a drop of iodine solution. Iodine solution is a stain.
5. Place a cover slip on top. To do this, stand the cover slip upright on the slide, next to the
water droplet. Then carefully tilt and lower it so it covers the specimen.
6. Now get a light microscope and clip the slide onto the stage.
7. Select the lowest-powered objective lens.
8. Use the coarse adjustment knob to move the stage up to just below the lens.
9. Look down the eyepiece, use the coarse adjustment knob to move the stage downwards
until the image is roughly in focus.
10. Adjust the focus with the fine adjustment knob, until you get a clear image.
11. Swap to a higher-powered objective lens and refocus to see the slide with greater
magnification. Magnification = image size/real size.

(2) Osmosis:
1. Cup up a potato into identical cylinders and get some beakers with different sugar solutions
in them. One should be pure water and another should be a very concentrated sugar
solution and you can have some in between.
2. Measure the mass of the cylinders, then leave one cylinder in each beaker for 24 hrs or so.
3. Take them out, dry them with a paper towel and measure their masses again.
4. If water has been drawn in by osmosis, they’ll have increased in mass. If water has been
drawn out, they’ll have decreased in mass. Calculate the percentage change in mass and plot
a graph.
5. Repeat the experiment and calculate a mean percentage change at each concentration.

(3) Enzymes:
1. Put a drop of iodine solution into every well of a spotting tile.
2. Place a Bunsen burner on a heat-proof mat, and a tripod and gauze over the Bunsen burner.
Put a beaker of water on top of the tripod and heat the water until it’s 35 C. Try to keep the
temperature constant.
3. Use a syringe to add 1cm3 of amylase solution and 1cm3 of a buffer solution with a pH of 5 to
a boiling tube. Using test tube holders, put the tube into the beaker of water and wait for
five minutes.
4. Next, use a different syringe to add 5cm3 of a starch solution to the boiling tube.
5. Immediately mix the contents of the boiling tube and start a stopwatch.
6. Use continuous sampling to record how long it takes for the amylase to break down all of
the starch. To do this, use a dropping pipette to take a fresh sample from the boiling tube
every 30 seconds and put a drop into a well. When the iodine solution remains browny-
orange, starch is no longer present.
7. Repeat the experiment with buffer solutions of different pH values to see how pH affects the
time taken for the starch to be broken down. Rate(s-1) = 1000/time
(4) Food tests:

How to prepare a food sample:

1. Get a piece of food and break it up using a pestle and mortar.
2. Transfer the ground up food to a beaker and add distilled water.
3. Give mixture a stir with a glass rod to dissolve some of the food.
4. Filter the solution using a funnel lined with filter paper to get rid of solid bits.

(1) Benedict’s Test for Sugars:

1. Prepare a food sample and transfer 5cm3 to a test tube.
2. Prepare a water bath so that it’s set to 75 C.
3. Add some Benedict’s solution to test tube (10 drops) using a pipette.
4. Place test tube in water bath using a test tube holder and leave for 5 minutes.
5. If food sample contains reducing sugar, solution will change from blue to
green/yellow/brick-red depending on amount of sugar.

(2) Iodine Solution to test for Starch:

1. Make a food sample and transfer 5cm3 to a test tube.
2. Add a few drops of iodine solution and gently shake the tube to mix. If sample contains
starch, solution will change from browny-orange to black/blue-black.

(3) Biuret test for Proteins:

1. Prepare a sample and transfer 2cm3 to a test tube.
2. Add 2cm3 of Biuret solution to sample and mix by shaking.
3. If sample contains protein, solution will change from blue to pink/purple.

(4) Sudan III test for Lipids:

1. Prepare food sample but don’t filter it. Transfer 5cm3 to a test tube.
2. Use a pipette to add 3 drops of Sudan III stain solution to the test tube and gently shake.
3. The solution stains lipids. If sample contains lipids, mixture will separate out into two layers,
top will be bright-red. If no lipids, no separate red layer will form.

(5) Photosynthesis:
1. Start by taking a boiling tube and placing it 10 cm away from an LED light source.
2. Now fill the boiling tube with sodium hydrogen carbonate solution. Which releases carbon
dioxide.
3. Put a piece of pondweed into the boiling tube with the cut end at the top.
4. Leave this for five minutes to acclimatise to the conditions.
5. Start a stopwatch and count the number of bubbles produced in one minute.
6. Repeat this two more times and calculate the mean number of bubbles produced in one
minute.
7. Do the whole experiment again with different distances between the boiling tube and light
source.
 Bubbles too fast to count.
 Bubbles aren’t always the same size
 Place the pondweed under a funnel and catch the bubbles in a measuring cylinder. Then use
the measuring cylinder to measure the volume of the oxygen gas produced.
 Inverse – square law.
Biology Paper 2
(6) Reaction Time:
1. The person being tested should sit with their arm resting on the edge of a table.
2. Hold a ruler vertically between their thumb and forefinger. Make sure that the zero end of
the ruler is level with their thumb and finger. Then let go without giving any warning.
3. The person being tested should try to catch the ruler as quickly as they can with their non-
dominant hand.
4. Reaction time is measured by the number on the ruler where it’s caught. The number should
be read from the top of the thumb. The further down the ruler it’s caught, the slower their
reaction time.
5. Repeat the test several times then calculate the mean distance that the ruler fell.
6. The person being tested should then have a caffeinated drink. After ten minutes repeat the
test.
 Same person, same hand, dropped from same height, no caffeine before experiment.
 Too much caffeine can cause side-effects.
 Simple computer tests can also be used to measure reaction time;
 More precise reaction time as they remove human error, remove the possibility of
prediction as person may learn to anticipate the drop by reading body language.

(7) Field investigations:

(1) Using Quadrats: A square frame enclosing a known area.

1. Place a 1m2 on the ground at a random point within the first sample area. (e.g.
divide the area into a grid and use a random number generator to pick coordinates.
2. Count all the organisms within the quadrat.
3. Repeat as many times as you can.
4. Work out the mean number of organisms per quadrat within the first sample area.
5. Repeat test in second sample area.
6. Finally compare the two means.
 Work out the population size of an organism by working out the mean number of
organisms per m2 and then multiplying the mean by the total area (in m2) of the
habitat.

(2) Using Transects:

1. Mark out a line in the area you want to study using a tape measure.
2. Then collect data along the line.
3. You can do this by counting all the organisms you’re interested in that touch the
line.
4. Or you can collect data by using quadrats. These can be placed next to each other
along the line or at intervals, i.e. every 2m.
 You can estimate percentage cover of a quadrat.
 Count the number of squares covered by the organism, make this into a percentage
by dividing the number of squares in the quadrat and then multiplying the result by
100.
Chemistry Practicals
Chemistry Paper 1
(1) Making Salts:
1. Start with a fixed volume of dilute sulfuric acid (Limiting reactant).
2. Gently heat the acid until almost boiling.
3. Use a spatula to add small amounts of copper oxide to the acid. Stir the solution with a glass
rod. The copper oxide will react and seem to disappear.
4. Continue adding copper oxide if the solution continues to be clear blue. Stop adding copper
oxide if some powder remains after stirring. At this point the reaction has stopped as all of
the acid has reacted.
5. Use filtration to remove the unreacted copper oxide.
6. Place the solution in an evaporating basin. Heat gently over a beaker of boiling water. Heat
until around half of the solution remains.
7. Leave the solution for 24 hrs in a cool place for crystals to form.
8. Scrape crystals onto paper towel and gently pat them dry.

(2) Electrolysis:
1. Pour copper chloride solution into the beaker to about 50cm3.
2. Add a lid and insert carbon rods through the holes. The rods must no touch each other.
3. Attach crocodile rods through the holes. Connect the rods to the dc terminals of a low
voltage power supply.
4. Select 4v on the power supply and switch on.
5. Using tweezers hold a piece of blue litmus paper in the solution next to the positive
electrode. You will need to lift the lid temporarily to do this. Write your observations in a
table.
6. After five minutes, switch off and examine the negative electrode.
7. Clean out the equipment carefully and repeat the investigation with solutions of copper
sulfate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate.
 If a gas is produced at the positive electrode which doesn’t bleach the blue litmus paper, it’s
oxygen.
 If a gas is produced at the negative electrode, it’s hydrogen.

(3) Temperature changes:

1. Put 25cm3 of 0.25 mol/dm3 of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide in separate beakers.
2. Place the beakers in a water bath set to 25 C until they are both at the same temperature.
3. Add the hydrochloric acid followed by the sodium hydroxide to a polystyrene cup with a lid.
4. Take the temperature of the mixture every 30 seconds and record the highest temperature.
5. Repeat using 0.5 mol/dm3 and then 1 mol/dm3 of hydrochloric acid.

(4) Rates of reaction:

(1) Precipitation and Colour Change:

1. You can record the visual change in a reaction if the initial solution is transparent and the
product is a precipitate which clouds the solution.
2. You can observe a mark through the solution and measure how long it takes for it to
disappear – the faster is disappears, the quicker the reaction.
3. If the reactants are coloured and the products are colourless (or vice versa), you can time
how long it takes for the solution to lose (or gain) its colour.
 The results are subjective – different people might not agree over the exact point when the
mark ‘disappears’ or the solution changes colour. You can’t plot a rate of reaction graph too.
 (2) Change in mass:
1. Measuring the speed of a reaction that produces a gas can be carried out using a mass
balance.
2. As the gas is released, the mass disappearing is measured on the balance.
3. The quicker the reading on the balance drops, the faster the reaction.
4. Take measurements at regular intervals and plot a reaction graph.
 Most accurate out of the three as the mass balance is accurate, however, gas is released
straight into the room.

(3) Volume of Gas Given Off:

1. This involves using a gas syringe to measure the volume of gas given off.
2. The more gas given off during a given time interval, the faster the reaction.
3. Gas syringes usually give volumes accurate to the nearest cm3, so they’re quite accurate.
Take measurements at regular intervals and plot a rate of reaction graph.

Chemistry Paper 2
(5) Chromatography:
1. Use a ruler to draw a horizontal pencil line on the chromatography paper, 2 cm from the
bottom.
2. Use a capillary tube to put a small spot of each of the known food colours and the unknown
colour onto the pencil spots.
3. Pour water (solvent) into a beaker to a depth of 1 cm.
4. Attach the paper to a glass rod using tape and lower the paper into the beaker. The bottom
of the paper should dip into the water.
5. Put a lid on the beaker to reduce evaporation of the solvent. Water will move up the paper
and the colours will be carried up.
6. Remove the paper when the water has travelled three-quarters up. Use a pencil to mark the
point where the water reached. Hang the paper up to dry.
 Measure the distance from the pencil line to the centre of each spot. Then measure the
distance moved by the water from the pencil line.
 Rf value = Distance moved by chemical/ Distance moved by solvent.
 Look up the Rf value in a database to identify the chemical, however, repeat with a different
solvent to make sure it’s the right Rf value for the chemical.

(6) Water purification:

1. Pour 1cm depth of the salt water into the test tube in the rack. Dip the nichrome wire into
this solution, and then hold the tip of the wire in a blue Bunsen burner flame.
2. Now add a few drops of dilute nitric acid to this solution, followed by 1cm depth of silver
nitrate solution.
3. Place the remaining salt water in the conical flask and set up the apparatus for distillation.
Make sure conical flask is held on the tripod and gauze using the clamp stand. Place a
mixture of ice and water in the beaker surrounding the test tube.
4. Heat the water with the Bunsen burner until it starts to boil. Then reduce the heat so that
the water boils gently. Distilled water will collect in the cooled test tube. Collect about 1cm
depth of water then stop heating.
5. Repeat steps 1 and 2 again using the distilled water, making sure that the nichrome wire and
test tube have been cleaned. Record your results in a table.
Physics Practicals
Physics Paper 1
(1) Specific Heat Capacity:
1. To investigate a solid material, you’ll need a block of the material with two holes in it.
2. Measure the mass of the block, then wrap it in an insulating layer to reduce the energy
transferred to the surroundings. Insert the thermometer and heater into the holes.
3. Measure the initial temperature of the block and set the p.d. (V) of the power supply to
10V. Turn on the power supply and start a stopwatch.
4. When you turn on the power, the current in the circuit does work on the heater,
transferring energy electrically from the power supply to the heater’s thermal energy store.
This energy is then transferred to the material’s thermal energy store by heating, causing
the material’s temperature to increase.
5. As the block heats up, take readings of the temperature and current (I), every minute for 10
minutes.
6. When you’ve collected enough readings (10), turn off the power supply, using your
measurement of the current, and the p.d. of the power supply you can calculate the power
supplied to the heater, using P=VI. You can use this to calculate how much energy (E) has
been transferred to the heater at the time of each temperature reading using E = Pt.
7. You can plot a graph of energy transferred to the thermal energy store of the block against
temperature.
8. Repeat the experiment with different materials.

(2) Resistance:
1. Attach a crocodile clip to the wire level with 0 cm on the ruler.
2. Attach the second crocodile clip to the wire 10 cm away from the first clip. Write down the
length of the wire between the clips.
3. Close the switch, then record the current through the wire and the p.d. across it.
4. Open the switch, then move the second crocodile clip another 10 cm, along the wire. Close
the switch again, then record the new length, current and p.d.
5. Repeat this for a number of different lengths of the test wire.
6. Use your measurements of current and p.d. to calculate the resistance for each length of
wire, using R = V/I.
7. Plot a graph of resistance against wire length and draw a line of best fit.
 Your graph should be a straight line through the origin, therefore resistance is directly
proportional to length – the longer the wire, the greater the resistance,
 If your graph doesn’t go through the origin, it could be because the first clip isn’t attached
exactly at 0cm, so all of your length readings are a bit out (systematic error).
(3) Current/PD Characteristics:
(1) Resistor:

1. Connect a battery by wires to a resistor. The resistor is in series with an ammeter and a
variable resistor. Voltmeter parallel across the resistor. First use the voltmeter to read the
p.d. across the resistor. Record these values in a table.
2. Now adjust the variable resistor and record the new readings on the voltmeter and
ammeter. Do this several times to get a range of readings.
3. Next switch the direction of the battery (direction of the p.d. has now reversed). Both the
voltmeter and ammeter should now have negative values. Continue taking several readings
of p.d. and current.
4. Plot a graph of the current against the p.d. (straight line passing through zero). Tells us the
current through a resistor is directly proportional to the p.d.
 A resistor is an ohmic conductor.
 Temperature of the resistor has to be constant.

(2) Filament lamp:

1. Adjust the variable resistor and read both the p.d. and the current.
2. Do this for a range of values with the battery in the forward and reverse direction.
3. Plot a graph.
 The current is not proportional to the p.d. as temperature of the filament increases when
the current does. Increased temperature causes the resistance to increase.

(3) Diode:

1. Adjust the variable resistor a number of times and record the p.d. and current.
2. Do this with the battery in the forward and reverse direction.
3. Plot a graph.
 Only get a current when p.d. is 0.6 – 0.7 volts.
 As the p.d. increases past the range, the current rises sharply.
 With a diode, we get no current if the p.d. is reversed as a diode has a high resistance in the
reverse direction.
(4) Density:
(1) Solid objects:
1. Use a balance to measure its mass.
2. If it’s a regular solid, start by measuring its length, width and height with a ruler. Then
calculate its volume using the relevant formula for that shape.
3. For an irregular object, you can find it’s volume by submerging it in a eureka can filled
with water. The water displaced by the object will be transferred to the measuring
cylinder.
4. Record the volume of water in the measuring cylinder. This is the volume of the object,
5. Work out the density using the formula Density = Mass/Volume.

(2) Liquids:
1. Place a measuring cylinder on a balance and zero the balance.
2. Pour 10 ml of the liquid into the measuring cylinder and record the liquid’s mass.
3. Pour another 10 ml into the measuring cylinder, repeating the process until the cylinder
is full and recording the total volume and mass each time.
4. For each measurement, use the formula to find the density. (1ml = 1cm3)
5. Take an average of your calculated densities, this will give you a value for the density of
the liquid.
Physics Paper 2
(5) Force and extension:
1. We have clamp stand, two bosses and two clamps
2. Now place a heavy weight on the clamp stand to stop it falling over.
3. Attach a metre rule and a spring. Top of the spring must be at the zero point on the metre
rule. Bottom of spring has a wooden splint attached as a pointer.
4. Read the position of this pointer on the metre rule (unstretched length of the spring).
5. Next hang a 1N weight on the spring.
6. Continue adding 1N weights to the spring and reading the position of the pointer.
7. Now work out the extension produced by adding each weight by subtracting the length of
the unstretched spring from each reading.
8. Now plot a graph of the extension against the weight.
 Extension is directly proportional to the weight (linear relationship).
 Too much weight = exceed the limit of proportionality. F = Ke.

(6) Acceleration:
1. Set up the trolley so it holds a piece of card with a gap in the middle that will interrupt the
signal on the light gate twice. If you measure the length of each bit of card that will pass
through the light gate and input this into the software, the light gate can measure the
velocity for each bit of card. It can use this to work out the acceleration of the trolley.
2. Connect the trolley to a piece of string that goes over a pulley and is connected on the other
side to a hook (that you know the mass of and can add more masses to).
3. The weight of the hook and any masses attached to it will provide the accelerating force,
equal to the mass of the hook (m) x acceleration due to gravity (g).
4. The weight of the hook and masses accelerates both the trolley and the masses, so you’re
investigating the acceleration of the system.
5. Mark a starting line on the table the trolley is on, so that the trolley always travels the same
distance to the light gate.
6. Place the trolley on the starting line, holding the hook so the string is taut, and release it.
7. Record the acceleration measured by the light gate as the trolley passes through it. This is
the acceleration of the whole system.
8. Repeat this twice more to get an average acceleration.
Effect of mass:
Add masses to the trolley one at a time to increase the mass of the system. Record the average
acceleration for each mass.

Effect of force:
Keep the total mass of the system the same but change the mass on the hook. Start will all the
masses loaded onto the trolley and transfer the masses to the hook one at a time, to increase
the accelerating force (the wright of the hanging masses). The mass of the system stays the
same as you’re only transferring the masses from one part of the system (the trolley) to another
(the hook). Record the average acceleration for each force. F = MA.

(7) Experiments with waves:

(1) Oscilloscope to measure the Speed of Sound:
By attaching a signal generator to a speaker, you can generate sound waves with a specific
frequency. You can use two microphones and an oscilloscope to find the wavelength of the
sound waves generated.
1. Set up the oscilloscope so the detected waves at each microphone are shown as
separate waves.
2. Start with both microphones next to the speaker, then slowly move one away until the
two waves are aligned on the display but have moved exactly one wavelength apart.
3. Measure the distance between the microphones to find one wavelength. (λ)
4. You can then use the formula V = Fλ to find the speed (v) of the sound waves passing
through the air – the frequency (f) is whatever you set the signal generator to.
5. The speed of sound in air is 330 m/s.

(2) Ripple Tank to measure the Speed of Water Ripples:

1. Using a signal generator attached to the dipper of a ripple tank you can generate water
waves at a set frequency.
2. Dim the lights and turn on the lamp. You should see wave crests as shadows on the
screen below the tank.
3. The distance between each shadow line is equal to one wavelength. Measure the
distance between shadow lines that are 10 wavelengths apart, then divide this distance
by 10 to find the average wavelength.
4. Use V = Fλ to calculate the wave speed of the waves.

(3) Wave Equation for Waves on Strings:

1. Set up a signal generator attached to a vibration transducer with a string attached to a
pulley with masses.
2. Then turn on the signal generator and vibration transducer. The string will start to
vibrate.
3. Adjust the frequency of the signal generator until there’s a clear wave on the string. The
frequency will depend on the length of the string between the pulley and the
transducer, and the masses you’ve used.
4. Measure the lengths of four/five half-wavelengths then divide to get the mean-half
wavelength, you can then double this to get a full wavelength.
5. The frequency of the wave is whatever you set the signal generator to.
6. You can find the speed of the wave using V = Fλ.
(8) Investigating Infrared Radiation:
Leslie cube: hollow, watertight, metal cube made of e.g. aluminium, whose four vertical faces have
different surfaces.
1. Place an empty Leslie cube on a heat-proof mat.
2. Boil water in a kettle and fill the Leslie cube with boiling water.
3. Wait a while for the cube to warm up, then hold a thermometer against each of the four
vertical faces of the cube. All faces have the same temperature.
4. Hold an infrared detector a set distance (e.g. 10cm) away from one of the cube’s vertical
faces and record the amount of IR radiation it detects.
5. Repeat this measurement for each of the cube’s vertical faces at the same distance from
the cube each time.
 Detect more infrared radiation from the black surface than the white one, and more from
the matt surfaces than the shiny ones.
 Do the experiment more than once.
 Don’t move cube when it’s full of boiling water as you might burn your hands.
 Be careful when carrying a full kettle.

(9) Melting Wax Trick:

1. Place a Bunsen burner. Two ball bearings are each stuck to one side of a metal plate with
solid pieces of candle wax. The other sides of these plates are then faced towards the flame.
2. The sides of the plates that are facing towards the flame each have a different surface colour
– one is matt black and the other is silver.
3. The ball bearing on the black plate will fall first as the black surface absorbs more infrared
radiation – transferring more to the thermal energy store of the wax. This means the wax on
the black plate melts before the wax on the silver plate.