GROUP 4: BIOLOGY = Approaches to data-based questions German Tenorio explains how to tackle data-based exam questions tre fia gy eer ean inc Prriccc secs isomers eo Sow hol you apes ivil qun! thc mans sce by ay Scandia paper 2 il be ‘hse compe igre) pe 2 aces Sietl ge hsthatore wettest Th onc dab ueion in ape in section nt ion aan 0-2cof eal pe er his paper Ovi ther conju ae wth das ued queso hig pbb neyou cain higher gan paper mh Mn paper nh hea wih thm exper paper? exe ah 18 ache many suson end ostungewih dashed gusto feng De 6 performance on paper 2 and consequently their overall grade in biology. As there are also a couple of short-answer questions on paper3 that use data, itis definitely worth having a good understanding of hhow to approach this kind of question Practice question Tete area few tips that you should keep in mind when tackling data based questions. Some of them are related to command terms, while cothers are more focused on mathematical skills ete. but all of them are equally important for your success. Imagine that you run into the following data-based question in paper 2: Hypertension is a disease ofthe ciculatory system that i becoming ‘more and more frequent in Europe. A study was carried out in rats with hypertension to examine the effects of anew drug onit 18 Review February 2019Bi 5 1 Er 110 jw 3» i i er er ee Drug concentration (mmol den) = Rats with hypertension treated = ats with hypertension (ontrol) Figure 1 Effect of a nw drug on the blood pressure of rats 380 as I fats with hypertension I ats with hypertension teated (contro) Figure 2. Effect of a new drug on the heart rate of rats ‘A group of adult male rats with hypertension were treated with diferent concentrations of anew drug. Similarly, another group of adult male rats with hypertension were treated with a placebo as acontal, Figure 1 shows the blood pressure in ats depending on the concentration of drug use. Suggest one benefit of using rats as models instead of other ‘organisms inthis experiment, (inate) 1b Outline the effec of the new drug on rats. (mats) {Distinguish between the control group and the treated rats Brats) In addition, scientists also wanted to find out the effect of ‘the drug on heart rate. Figure 2 shows the heart rate for both ‘groups of rats with a concentration of mmolda?, 4 Calculate the percentage decrease in heart rate between both ‘groups of rats. (mais) Let’ take into account the following advice in order to answer the above questions. Marks in brackets In data-based questions, the number of marks usually varies from 1 10 3 foreach question, which tellsyou how many pieces of different information you have to give in your answer, One ‘mark cloes not mean that there is only one correct answer, but t does mean that you only have to give one correc piece of information, ‘There are several correct answers for question (a), such as: ‘small size, ‘short life cycle, ‘better than higher ‘mammals due to ethical issues’ You only need to write one of these to get the mark. svar hoddereducationes.ublibresiew Ret Cree rts Use the data from Figures 1 and 2 to create the other types of graph listed inthe article Two marks means that you have o give at least two different pieces ofinformation in your answer. Acommon mistake that students make {sto say the same thing in two different ways, For example, in answer to question (b: | can see from the graph that there i a negative relationship between blood pressure and drug concentration. In addition, the higher the concentration of the drug, the lower the blood pressure, Apparently, this student is saying two things in order 10 meet the number of marks inthe brackets, However, this student is really just saying the same thing twice. They are not coming up with two different conclusions from the graph, justone, and for this reason they ‘would only be awarded 1 mark, ‘An example of an answer that provides wo different pieces of information from the graph and would have received 2 marks for ‘question (b) is: | can see from the graph that there is @ negative relationship between blood pressure and drug concentration. Nevertheless, this relationship occurs up to a concentration of Ammoldm’3, as a plateau can be seen at higher concentrations Similarly, you must provide three different pieces of information in order to obtain all the marks for a 3-mark question. Command terms The command terms are the key terms and phrases used in ‘examination questions. You can find the IB glossary of command terms for biology at wwvw.tinyurl.com/ybshje6e You need to know these command terms in depth, especially those elated to data-based questions. You can‘ afford to waste marks because you do not know what the question is asking, Most students tend 10 describe what they can see in a graph step by step instead of saying what they can conclude from it, Le’ssuppose a student answers the following for question (¢) First, blood pressure decreases in treated rats from around 118 10 90 and then stays around S0mmHg. Second, blood pressure in control rats always keeps between 115 and 120,Etsmet sc cetr \What ae the consequences of various ways of illustrating data? ‘What isthe role ofthe mathematical sls n scintitic experimentation? To what extent are graphs the best way of communication In science? In data-based questions, you must find tends or patterns in. graphs, avoiding numerical descriptions of the graph, In this case, the command term ‘distinguish’ involves pointing out differences between both groups of rats, but remember that these should be differences in patterns rather than in specific numbers. A much better answer for question (¢) would be: First, blood pressure decreases in treated rats up to @ ‘concentration of 4mmoldm’3, but it keeps constant at higher ‘concentrations. Second, blood pressure in control rats does not change, staying more or less steady. Overall, blood pressure in control rats is always higher than in treated rats throughout the experiment. Asyou can see, three different pieces ofinformation havebeen given, in order to meet the number of marks for the question. Additionally, instead of describing the graph, the differences between the pattern for ‘each group of rats have been drawn. Different types of graphs Many difficulties that students experience when answering data-based questions are related tothe type of graph they have to understand, ‘Although line graphs and bar charts appear the most frequently in ‘exams, stents mustalso know how to read or interpret information fiom other types of graphs. You need to be confident with all ofthe following types of graphs: line graphs bar charts histograms pie charts box and whiskers scattergraphs ‘The more you work on these graphs, the higher the proba improving your grade in paper 2. Mathematical skills Data-based questions usually include a couple of questions where you. have apply some kind of mathematical skills. Alhough these skills, arebased on basiccalculations, youstill need to workon them in order to avoid losing marks from these questions. For example, students commonly struggle with questions that require them to calculate the percentage ofan increase or decrease There is a basic Formula that can be used for calculating percentage decreases: _Difforence between original value and new value Hitnaee ‘Original vale «100 Note that this formula is used for calculating a decrease, as the ‘new value is lower than the original one. Ifthe new value were higher than the original, then we would calculate the percentage increase with this formula 8 peer Poet in treated rats Difference between new value and original value ‘Original value= 100 For our example, question (d) isan increase, so we can say that Difference between contcl vale and ested group value ‘ginal vex 100 The calculation for question (4) would be: {$00 389), 199 = 1500 3.7505 ‘A useful tip ist check ifthe result makes sense to you. We can see from the graph that the decrease is from 400 t0 385, which is quite small, From 400 to 300 would be 25% and from 400 to 350 would bea decrease of 6.25%, s0 it makes sense that our result islower than that value % change be chang. Final consideration ‘Over the past few years, the [8 biology examiners report has aid many students have had difficulties in answering the data-based questionsin section (a) of paper 2. Although you do not know what questions are coming up in the rest ofthe exam, you do know in advance thatthe first question in section (a of paper 2is always a data-based question —s0 get ready frit. You cantafford to lose marks because you are not familiar with thistype of question, Hopefully you now have a beter insight into how to answer data based questions Fyou make the most ofthe tps given here, you wll hhavea better chance to succeed in paper 2, the paper withthe highest impact on your overall gadein biology. As you prepae for your exams, make sure you are familiar with and feel confident when approaching data-based questions. 1B Review February 2019