Glycolysis A level Biology

In today's A level Biology Video we looked at Glycolysis, the Link reaction, The Krebs cycle and Oxidative Phosphorylation. The process of Glycolysis breaks down glucose into 2 3 carbon sugars only producing a small amount of energy. The link reaction does a little more, but the Krebs cycle makes the most energy and this is in all forms of energy chemicals. These are all turned into ATP the energy molecules by the process of oxidative phosphorylation.

Transpiration and the Potometer

Looking at how plants take up water is an essential experiment in Biology. A small piece of plant in this case some water cress is inserted into a tube at the top making a water tight seal. The potometer shown here allows an air bubble to be brought into the apparatus, using a syringe, so that the movement of the bubble can be monitored with time. As the plant transpires, water is sucked up the tube and evaporates from the leaves. By knowing the volume of the capillary tube the amount of water lost be minute can be calculated.

Carbon Nanotubes

Three allotropes of Carbon, Diamond, Graphite and Buckminster Fullerene are known.

There is another, a one slice of graphite (graphene) that is rolled into a tube to make a carbon nanotube called a carbon fibre.

This model was created by me since a manufactured model didn't exist.  I made a sheet of graphene three carbons joined to each other then rolled it up like the real thing. The tube is incredibly strong .

Making Silver crystals

Making small crystals of silver from a solution of  Silver Nitrate and a piece of copper wire

Getting the system setup

First we wrapped the wire around a pencil to make a coil. This creates a larger surface area and produces more silver.

Next the solution 0.1M Silver Nitrate is added to cover the copper coil in a test tube. This is then left in a dark place for an hour or so.

After about an hour the test tube is take of of the dark and here we can see the copper wire has changed colour. The solution has gone a light blue and crystals have formed.

We then place this under the microscope.

and take a few pictures of what we see.

and sure enough some crystals are formed. The longer you leave this the better and bigger the crystals.

Measuring the speed of Sound in a Column

In this experiment I have taken a tuning fork, a hollow tube and a measuring cylinder filled with water. The hollow tube can move up and down creating a length of air in the column above the water. The tuning fork is placed over the column and the column moved up and down until the loudest sound is heard. The length of the tube is a quarter of the wavelength, so we multiply the column  length by 4.

We know that the velocity = frequency x wavelength

So if the column is 19.4cm long then the wavelength is 19.4 x 4 = 77.6

The frequency of the tuning fork is 440Hz

So the velocity = 0.776 x 440 = 341.44 m/s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7yl43Zvy8E

New A Level Courses

This week we launched our A level Topic by Topic Series, covering Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. These are a series of live streamed lessons covering these core subjects. Each week we take a different topic and try to explain it simply using experiments, models and hands on teaching. Join us on Wednesday and Thursday Mornings.

Online 1 to 1 Lesson and Live-streaming

With the UK in lockdown over corvid-19, Schools shut, shops closed and businesses struggling. Therefore I must re-invent myself to survive. Over the last year we have been producing Educational videos over on our YouTube channel which has been growing at a steady rate. With the introduction of new technologies we planned and assessed the possibility of doing online classes but struggling to working out who was going to watch them.

As many of you are aware the UK Government suspended GCSE and A-Levels exams, which came at a surprise for us and caused much calamity due to the fact exams are a Goal/deadline for most of my students. With the year 11's and Year 13's are going to get their predicted grades for the next step in their education means that I've now lost them. However the Year 10's and 12's are stuck because IF they go back in September they've got to cover 4 terms worth of work in 2!

Now some schools are trying to help with lessons happening on Zoom, Microsoft Team Etc., however its more of a board meeting/roundtable kind of lesson which isn't the great the best kind of lesson. We have also move our 1 to 1 lessons to online also using Webex from Cisco, but more importantly we've got a system to actually broadcast real/proper lessons that you would find in a classroom this is done by utilising multiple points of view and an integrated system of technology to allow learning to take place. 

Additionally we're Live-streaming maths and science lessons going through the whole syllabuses topic by topic to help those year 10's who aren't receiving any schooling and we a going to start doing the same for A-Level content to help the year 12's in their time of need. All I can say is that we are band together to make sure that we as a people get back on our feet.

Remember to stay safe, wash your hands.