Organisms and their environment — IGCSE Sciences - Co-Ordinated (0654) questions by topic
12 questions on organisms and their environment from the 2023 and 2024 papers, worth 5 to 11 marks, work from a pollution pie chart, a labelled carbon cycle diagram, and a food web featuring producers, herbivores and quaternary consumers.
Expect state and explain to dominate, with identify and suggest asking you to read data off a diagram or graph and reason about undesirable effects rather than simply recall a definition. Practise the diagram-reading questions and submit each response for instant marking, so gaps in linking a food web or carbon cycle label to its correct process are caught before they cost marks in a full paper.
What examiners look for
- Examiners found many candidates worked out the areas on a pie chart correctly but few could then calculate the percentage change.
- A recurring criticism is failing to link a described effect to less photosynthesis, or suggesting only one undesirable effect where more were needed.
- Reports note that few candidates realised krill is a herbivore, and that phytoplankton, or 'light' alone, was not accepted as an answer.
- Most candidates named the four substances in a cycle but did not go on to state whether each was a reactant or a product.
May–June 2024, Paper 31
Fig. 4.1 shows a food web from a rainforest environment (organisms: snake, ocelot, jaguar, howler monkey, three-toed sloth, banana tree). Construct a food chain from Fig. 4.1 that…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 32
Fig. 10.1 is a diagram of the carbon cycle, showing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carbon compounds in animals and in plants, carbon compounds in dead organisms and in fossil…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 33
Fig. 10.1 is a diagram of the carbon cycle, showing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carbon compounds in animals and in plants, carbon compounds in dead organisms and in fossil…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 41
Fig. 10.1 is a diagram of part of the carbon cycle, linking carbon compounds in the atmosphere, in fossil fuels, in animals, in dead organisms and in plants, with processes…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 43
Fig. 10.1 shows part of a food web from a desert ecosystem (organisms: snake, falcon, spider, kangaroo rat, rabbit, cactus). Use Fig. 10.1 to construct a food chain that contains…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 41
Scientists investigate eutrophication in a lake. They measure the relative abundance of different factors. Fig. 10.1 is a graph summarising the results (relative abundance against…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 31
Fig. 4.1 (a pie chart) shows some different sources of pollution of the water in seas: agriculture 27%, untreated sewage 27%, chemical waste from air pollution 18%, chemical waste…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 42
Fig. 7.1 shows a food web (corn and mango as producers; grasshopper, rat, fruit fly, frog, dragonfly, snake, eagle). Use Fig. 7.1 to state the name of one: herbivore ...;…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 32
Fig. 1.1 is a diagram of a marine food web showing orca, leopard seal, krill, arctic cod and phytoplankton. Table 1.1 shows terms used to describe the organisms in Fig. 1.1. Place…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 33
Scientists record the area of land that is cleared by deforestation every year. Fig. 4.1 shows a bar chart of the results in one country (area of land cleared by deforestation /…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 41
Fig. 10.1 shows aerial photographs of the same area taken at different times. Photograph A was taken in 1985 and photograph B in 2000. Areas of forest are darker and areas that…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 43
A scientist compares the relative concentrations of bacteria and dissolved oxygen in a river before and after fertiliser is added. Fig. 4.1 is a graph of the results (relative…
Answer this question and get it marked →Other IGCSE Sciences - Co-Ordinated topics
- Practical skills (146)
- Motion, forces and energy (41)
- Organic chemistry (16)
- Electricity and magnetism (15)
- Waves (14)
- Reproduction (13)
- Nuclear physics (13)
- Coordination and response (12)
- Metals (11)
- Atoms, elements and compounds (10)
- Stoichiometry (9)
- Thermal physics (9)