Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in Biology · 4BI1 · Free · no account needed
Topic 5 · Use of biological resources
Biology put to work — glasshouses, fertilisers, pest control, yeast and bacteria in food, fermenters, fish farming, selective breeding, genetic modification and cloning.
Every lesson here ends the same way: learn it, teach it to an AI pupil who asks the awkward question, then defend it against the thinker with the strongest claim on it — free · no account needed.
8 lessons, covering 20 specification statements.
What you need to know — the 20 statements, and where each one is taught
Every statement this topic carries, in the specification's own numbering, with Incandio's restatement of what it asks and the lesson that discharges it. Tick them off against your own copy of the specification: this is the topic's revision checklist, not a summary of it. Incandio is aligned to this specification. It is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording — the statement numbers are given so you can check every lesson against your own copy.
| Statement | What it asks | Taught in |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | How glasshouses and polythene tunnels increase crop yield | Increasing Crop Yield |
| 5.2 | The effects of increased carbon dioxide and temperature in glasshouses on yield | Increasing Crop Yield |
| 5.3 | How fertiliser use increases crop yield | Increasing Crop Yield |
| 5.4 | Reasons for pest control, and the advantages and disadvantages of pesticides and biological control | Increasing Crop Yield |
| 5.5 | The role of yeast in food production, including bread | Yeast, Bread and Fermentation |
| 5.6 (practical) | Practical: investigate anaerobic respiration by yeast in different conditions | Yeast, Bread and Fermentation |
| 5.7 | The role of Lactobacillus in yoghurt production | Yoghurt and the Industrial Fermenter |
| 5.8 | The industrial fermenter and the conditions it must provide | Yoghurt and the Industrial Fermenter |
| 5.9 | The methods used to farm large numbers of fish | Fish Farming and Selective Breeding |
| 5.10 | How selective breeding develops plants with desired characteristics | Fish Farming and Selective Breeding |
| 5.11 | How selective breeding develops animals with desired characteristics | Fish Farming and Selective Breeding |
| 5.12 | How restriction enzymes cut DNA and ligase enzymes join it | Genetic Engineering |
| 5.13 | How plasmids and viruses act as vectors carrying recombinant DNA into cells | Genetic Engineering |
| 5.16 | The term transgenic: transfer of genetic material between species | Genetic Engineering |
| 5.14 | How human insulin is manufactured from genetically modified bacteria in a fermenter | GM Insulin and GM Crops |
| 5.15 | How genetically modified plants can improve food production | GM Insulin and GM Crops |
| 5.17 | Micropropagation (tissue culture) with explants grown in vitro | Micropropagation |
| 5.18 | How micropropagation produces commercial quantities of identical plants | Micropropagation |
| 5.19 | The stages in producing cloned mammals, illustrated by Dolly the sheep | Cloning Mammals |
| 5.20 | How cloned transgenic animals can produce human proteins | Cloning Mammals |
The lessons
- 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. (5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4)
- Yeast, Bread and Fermentation — One organism respiring without oxygen — and two industries built on the two different products it makes. (5.5, 5.6)
- 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. (5.7, 5.8)
- Fish Farming and Selective Breeding — Growing food by controlling every loss of energy — and by doing deliberately what the environment does by accident. (5.9, 5.10, 5.11)
- Genetic Engineering — Cutting a gene out of one organism and making another organism read it — and the reason that works at all. (5.12, 5.13, 5.16)
- GM Insulin and GM Crops — The same technique used twice — once to brew a human hormone in a tank, and once to change what a field can grow. (5.14, 5.15)
- Micropropagation — Growing thousands of identical plants from a few cells — and why this only works because a plant cell never quite gives up its options. (5.17, 5.18)
- Cloning Mammals — How a lamb was built from an udder cell, what that proved about every cell in your body, and what such animals are now used for. (5.19, 5.20)