Teacher guide

Edexcel GCSE Biology revision for teachers

These activities are mapped to Edexcel GCSE Biology 1BI0, the separate science, and marked as the student works. There are 35 across the thirteen topics, which Edexcel splits by exam paper rather than by content area. Two things are worth knowing before you set any of them. Four topics are Biology only, absent from Combined Science, and two of those four are **Higher tier only**, so a Foundation group has no reason to revise them. And the activities lean towards diagrams and genetics rather than prose: nine of the 35 ask a student to label a structure and three use a Punnett square, while none are extract or source work.

This page lists what we actually have for Edexcel GCSE Biology 1BI0. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

Tier and award, before anything else

Edexcel flags two things in this specification that decide whether an activity is worth setting at all, so they go first.

Four topics are Biology only. Protein synthesis, plant disease and defences, culturing microorganisms, and monoclonal antibodies do not appear in Combined Science. If you teach both, do not set these to a combined group.

Two of those four are Higher tier only: protein synthesis and monoclonal antibodies. A Foundation group will not be examined on them. Revision time is the scarcest thing a Year 11 has, and spending it on content that is not on their paper is the most avoidable waste there is.

Everything else on this page is fair game for any student entered for 1BI0.

How the specification is organised, and how we follow it

Edexcel splits Biology into thirteen topics across two papers rather than into a handful of large content areas. Our activities follow that structure, which means they are spread thinner and more evenly than on a board that uses fewer, bigger topics: most topics here have three or four activities, none has more than four.

That has a practical upside. If you teach in specification order, the coverage roughly keeps pace with you, rather than clustering in the topics that happen to have been built first.

What these activities are made of

Nine of the thirty-five ask a student to label a structure: a cell, a leaf, a section through an organ. Three work through a Punnett square. Both are the highest share of any subject on this site, which follows a specification that assesses biological structure and inheritance heavily.

None of them are extract or source work. Biology here is diagram, calculation and recall rather than reading a passage and marking it up.

Finding the right one

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. Two headings are absent rather than empty: all thirty-five suit homework and independent study, so those would hold everything and separate nothing.

The three activities embedded below are playable here without an account.

Using them

For setting these as homework and what you do and do not get back afterwards, see revision homework that marks itself. For off-screen options to pair with them, including the ones that need no device at all, see ready-to-run revision activities. To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint.

Our past paper archive carries Edexcel's own Biology papers and mark schemes, free and unaltered. Check the tier before handing one out.

What this page does not do

It does not cover the core practicals as a set.

It does not tier the activities for you beyond flagging the two Higher tier topics above, so check the specification for a class entered at Foundation.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Biology activity for Edexcel

35 activities, all mapped to Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Biology (1BI0).

Good for starter (29)

Good for intervention (27)

Good for tutor time (6)

Good for mock preparation (2)

Culture Club 15 min
The Osmosis Lab 15 min

Good for cover lesson (1)

The Protein Synthesis Studio 20 min

See all 35, by topic

Try it with your class

Edexcel Biology 11 minutes

Diffusion Factors

9 steps, 6 interactive, 6 activity types.

Best used for

Starter Tutor time Intervention

Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
Tutor time: Fits a short tutor slot without being cut in half.
Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Which of these changes would make diffusion FASTER?

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Edexcel Biology 12 minutes

The Food Test Lab

10 steps, 6 interactive, 6 activity types.

Best used for

Starter Tutor time Intervention

Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
Tutor time: Fits a short tutor slot without being cut in half.
Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Which food test requires you to HEAT the sample in a water bath?

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Edexcel Biology 11 minutes

Indicator Species ID

9 steps, 6 interactive, 6 activity types.

Best used for

Starter Tutor time Intervention

Starter: Short enough to open a lesson and still leave time to teach.
Tutor time: Fits a short tutor slot without being cut in half.
Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Blackspot fungus grows on rose leaves only where the air is low in sulfur dioxide. What does finding blackspot fungus tell you about the air?

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Common questions

Which content here is Higher tier only?

Protein synthesis and monoclonal antibodies are Higher tier only, and both are also Biology only rather than Combined Science. If you teach a Foundation group, those topics are not on their paper and revising them costs time they do not have.

What else is separate Biology rather than Combined Science?

Plant disease and defences, and culturing microorganisms, on top of the two Higher tier topics above. If you also teach Combined Science, use that specification's own page instead, because these four topics are not on it.

How is this different from AQA Biology?

The content overlaps heavily, but the two boards organise and assess it differently, so the pages are not interchangeable. Edexcel splits into thirteen topics across two papers; AQA uses seven topic areas. Set activities from the specification your class is entered for.

Are the diagrams and genetics well covered?

Better than most subjects here. Nine of the 35 activities ask a student to label a structure and three work through a Punnett square, which is the highest share of either on this site.

Do you cover the core practicals?

Not as a set. Some activities touch practical content where the specification requires it, but nothing is built around the core practicals and we would rather say so plainly.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

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Related for teachers

GCSE revision homework that marks itself How to set revision as homework without creating a pile of marking: one link, questions checked as the student answers them, and feedback that arrives while it still matters. Includes what this approach doesn't give you.
Ready-to-run GCSE revision activities A working list of GCSE revision activities, each with the thing it makes students recall, the moment they find out whether they were right, and what they do about it. Some run on a screen and some need nothing but a board.