Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in Biology · 4BI1 · Free · no account needed
Increasing Crop Yield — exam questions
10 original Incandio exam-style questions on Increasing Crop Yield, 28 marks, about 28 minutes of writing. Each one carries the command word, the tariff and the specification statement it assesses, exactly as a paper presents them. This is an original Incandio practice question, written to reflect the structure and demands of the qualification. It is not an official Pearson Edexcel past-paper question.
This is the practice set for Increasing Crop Yield — the lesson that teaches it. Read the lesson first if the idea is new; come here when you want to find out whether you can turn it into marks. Completely free, no account needed to read.
What these questions ask of you
6 command words run through this set, and on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Biology each one means something precise. Answering the wrong command is the commonest way a candidate who understands the lesson still loses the mark.
- Which (1 mark)
- one option chosen from the set given
- Give (1–2 marks)
- a short factual answer drawn from recall or from the data
- Explain (2–4 marks)
- a causal chain — WHY it happens, each link a separate marking point Misread as: describing what happens without giving the reason it happens
- Compare (2–4 marks)
- explicit points of similarity or difference, each naming BOTH things
- Suggest (1–3 marks)
- a plausible answer applying taught biology to a situation not taught
- Discuss (3–6 marks)
- an account that puts more than one consideration side by side and reaches a position
Assessed on Paper 1 (4BI1/1B) and Paper 2 (4BI1/2B), against AO1, AO2, AO3.
Where these sit in the specification
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Biology (4BI1) — statements 5.3 · 5.1 · 5.4 · 5.2. 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 10 questions
Answer them on paper, then open the lesson's exam practice to have them marked. The mark scheme, the accepted and rejected answers and the annotated model answer are in Incandio and are not printed here — an answer beside its question is not practice.
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Table 1 — tomato yield from four identical glasshouses over one season, each managed differently. Glasshouse Carbon dioxide / % Mean temperature / °C Yield / kg per plant W 0.04 18 3.4 X 0.04 25 4.9 Y 0.10 18 4.1 Z 0.10 25 7.2 (a)
(1)Give
Give the two glasshouses that should be compared to find the effect of carbon dioxide alone.
Table 1 — tomato yield from four identical glasshouses over one season, each managed differently. Glasshouse Carbon dioxide / % Mean temperature / °C Yield / kg per plant W 0.04 18 3.4 X 0.04 25 4.9 Y 0.10 18 4.1 Z 0.10 25 7.2 (b)
(3)Explain
Explain why glasshouse Z gives a much higher yield than either W or the sum of the separate improvements would suggest.
Table 1 — tomato yield from four identical glasshouses over one season, each managed differently. Glasshouse Carbon dioxide / % Mean temperature / °C Yield / kg per plant W 0.04 18 3.4 X 0.04 25 4.9 Y 0.10 18 4.1 Z 0.10 25 7.2 (c)
(2)Suggest
Suggest what the grower should investigate next in order to raise the yield above 7.2 kg per plant.
Table 1 — tomato yield from four identical glasshouses over one season, each managed differently. Glasshouse Carbon dioxide / % Mean temperature / °C Yield / kg per plant W 0.04 18 3.4 X 0.04 25 4.9 Y 0.10 18 4.1 Z 0.10 25 7.2 (Total for Question 1 = 6 marks)
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(1)Which
Which mineral ion in a fertiliser is used by a plant to make amino acids?
Ion A nitrate B magnesium C chloride D calcium (Total for Question 2 = 1 mark)
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(2)Give
Give two conditions a grower can control inside a glasshouse but not in an open field.
(Total for Question 3 = 2 marks)
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(3)Explain
Explain why adding nitrate fertiliser to a field increases the yield of a wheat crop.
(Total for Question 4 = 3 marks)
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(4)Compare
Compare the use of a chemical pesticide with the use of biological control.
(Total for Question 5 = 4 marks)
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(3)Explain
Explain why biological control can never remove a pest species completely from a glasshouse.
(Total for Question 6 = 3 marks)
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(3)Suggest
Suggest why a grower who heats a glasshouse at night sees a bigger increase in yield in winter than in summer.
(Total for Question 7 = 3 marks)
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(6)Discuss
Discuss why a grower might heat a glasshouse and add carbon dioxide to it, and why doing both is not always worth the cost.
(Total for Question 8 = 6 marks)
Have them marked, then defend the answer
Practice tells you the mark; teaching it back tells you whether you understand it. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it.
- Mark these questions — 10 questions, marked on Incandio against the authored scheme, with the mistake you actually made named.
- Teach it — explain Increasing Crop Yield to Ember, an AI pupil who does not have it yet and asks the awkward question.
- Defend it — argue it against Rachel Carson over three rounds, marked against descriptors you can read first.
Completely free. No subscriptions, no paywalls, no account needed to start.
Back to the lesson
- 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.
- All of Incandio Biology · Incandio Exam Practice