Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Biology · specification 4BI1 · Paper 2 | Whole paper: All content including bold B statements · Free · no account needed
5(a) Food production (4BI1 specification)
Glasshouses, fish farming, yoghurt and bread — biology deliberately manipulated to produce food.
Learn it on Incandio
The 4 Incandio pages that teach this — each explained in full, then proved in marked questions, taught back to an AI pupil and defended in a debate. Completely free.
- Increasing Crop Yield — Everything a grower does is one of two things — remove whatever is limiting the crop, or remove whatever is competing with it.
- Yeast, Bread and Fermentation — One organism respiring without oxygen — and two industries built on the two different products it makes.
- Yoghurt and the Industrial Fermenter — Bacteria turned into a manufacturing process — and the vessel built to give them the best conditions they will ever have.
- Fish Farming and Selective Breeding — Growing food by controlling every loss of energy — and by doing deliberately what the environment does by accident.
The teaching route this belongs to: Topic 5 · Use of biological resources (Biology) — the lessons in order, with every gate.
Specification coverage
Topic 5 Use of biological resources (a) Food production — statements 5.1–5.10B (includes bold B statements assessed on Paper 2 only)
Assessment objectives: AO1, AO2, AO3. Suggested learning time: 70 minutes.
Required knowledge
- How glasshouses and polytunnels increase crop yield
- The use of fertilisers and pest control, and the arguments about each
- The role of yeast in bread and in the production of ethanol
- The role of bacteria in yoghurt production
- The use of a fermenter to produce mycoprotein, and the conditions that must be controlled
- Fish farming methods and the reasons for each
- Bold B statements: industrial fermentation in greater depth
Required skills
- Explain a growing or farming method in terms of the biology it exploits
- Evaluate a method on yield, cost and environmental effect
- Describe and evaluate the required practical: Investigate the production of carbon dioxide by yeast under different conditions.
How it is examined
- Multiple-choice and short-answer recall
- Application of the content to an unfamiliar context
- Extended open-response, marked on the quality of a connected explanation
- Practical questions on method, variables, data and sources of error
Common mistakes
- Explaining a glasshouse only as 'warmer'. Carbon dioxide enrichment, light and pest exclusion are all specified.
- Listing fermenter conditions without saying why each is controlled.
This page maps the specification. The pages above teach it, and the Biology lessons hold the whole course — completely free.