Home › Subjects › O-Level Pure Biology › Reproduction

O-Level Reproduction

What the O-Level syllabus expects for Reproduction, and how to practise it.

What the syllabus expects

• Define asexual reproduction as a process that yields genetically identical offspring from a single parent.
• Note that mitosis is a form of cell division producing genetically identical cells while keeping the chromosome number the same.
• Give the importance of mitosis in growth, in repair and in asexual reproduction.
• Define sexual reproduction as a process where the nuclei of a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, giving genetically dissimilar offspring.
• Define the terms haploid and diploid, and account for why a reduction division must occur before fertilisation in sexual reproduction.
• Give the meaning of homologous pairs of chromosomes.
• Note that meiosis is a form of cell division producing genetically dissimilar cells and halving the chromosome number as homologous chromosomes separate.
• Note that meiosis is what forms the gametes.
• Recognise, with a hand lens if needed, the sepals, petals, stamens and carpels of insect-pollinated dicotyledonous flowers, and view their pollen grains under a light microscope.
• Give the roles of the sepals, petals, anthers and carpels.
• Using a hand lens where needed, pick out the stigmas and stamens on wind-pollinated flowers, and inspect their pollen grains through a light microscope.
• Outline how pollination happens and tell apart self-pollination from cross-pollination.
• Using fresh specimens, compare an insect-pollinated flower with a wind-pollinated one and account for their differences.
• Outline how the pollen tube grows and enters the ovule, followed by fertilisation.
  Scope: Neither how the endosperm forms nor the finer points of development need be covered.
• Recognise the male reproductive system and give the roles of the testes, scrotum, sperm ducts, prostate gland, urethra and penis.
• Recognise the female reproductive system and give the roles of the ovaries, oviducts, uterus, cervix and vagina.
• Outline the menstrual cycle, covering how menstruation and ovulation alternate, how its length naturally varies, and its fertile and infertile phases, referring only to the effects of progesterone and oestrogen.
• Set out fertilisation and the early growth of the zygote simply as the forming of a ball of cells that becomes embedded in the uterus wall.
• Give what the amniotic fluid does and what the sac enclosing it does.
• Set out what the placenta and umbilical cord do in exchanging dissolved nutrients, gases and excretory products.
  Scope: Structural details are not required.
• Talk through how human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is transmitted and the ways that transmission can be reduced.

More O-Level Pure Biology topics

Cell Structure and Organisation · Movement of Substances · Biological Molecules · Nutrition in Humans · Transport in Humans · Respiration in Humans · all of O-Level Pure Biology