Year 7 Microbes

Question 1

What does a fungi contain?

Answer 1

Cell wall, vacuole, starch granule, cytoplasm, nucleus, cell membrane

Question 2

Give three examples of bacteria

Answer 2

E.g. Food poisoning, sore throats, tuberculosis, tetanus, cholera, typhoid, bacterial meningitis

Question 3

What does a bacterium contain?

Answer 3

Cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, loop of DNA, flagella

Question 4

What does a virus contain?

Answer 4

Protein coat, strand of DNA

Question 5

Why is a virus classified as non-living?

Answer 5

It cannot reproduce without a host

Question 6

What is an agar plate?

Answer 6

A nutrient rich jelly for micro-organisms to grow

Question 7

Give three examples of viruses

Answer 7

E.g. Influenza, mumps, chickenpox, smallpox, polio, rabies, viral meningitis

Question 8

Name the places microbes can enter the body

Answer 8

Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, genitals, cuts

Question 9

Name three ways microbes can spread

Answer 9

E.g. Airborne droplets, food and water, animals

Question 10

Why can microbes be useful?

Answer 10

They can be grown

Question 11

Give a use of a microbe

Answer 11

Bacteria can be used in milk to make it ‘go off’ or to turn it into yoghurt

Question 12

What is the formula for aerobic respiration in yeast?

Answer 12

Glucose + oxygen —> carbon dioxide + water

Question 13

Give three examples of fungi

Answer 13

Fungal sinusitis, athlete’s foot, onychomycosis

Question 14

What is a parasite?

Answer 14

Something living on or in something else

Question 15

How does a white blood cell kill a bacterium for the first time?

Answer 15

1. It recognises it and moves towards it
2. It engulfs it by fusing its cell membrane around it
3. It produces toxic enzymes and harmful chemicals that enter the compartment and destroy and break down the bacterium
4. The white blood cell will absorb only useful material and expel the rest

Question 16

How does a white blood cell kill a bacterium it has killed before?

Answer 16

1. It recognises it and moves towards it
2. It produces antibodies specific to the bacterium type it has detected
3. The antibodies attach to the surface of the bacterium and slow it down or destroy it
4. The white blood cell absorbs any useful material and expels the rest

Question 17

How were vaccines first discovered?

Answer 17

French scientist Pasteur wanted to find a cure for anthrax. After getting nowhere, he decided to look at chicken Cholera. One time he accidentally gave a bunch of chickens a batch of Cholera that had been left out for a week. They were all alive 10 days later. He tested a new batch of Cholera on the old chickens and the new chickens. After a while all of the new chickens were dead or dying but all of the old chickens were still healthy. He tried this again with cows and anthrax and got the same results.

Question 18

What are pathogens?

Answer 18

Organisms that cause disease

Question 19

How do vaccines work?

Answer 19

A version of the disease with dead or weakened microbes is injected into the body. This does not make you ill and is not contagious. The white blood cells create antibodies to fight it off, so if you get it again you will have the antibodies to fight it off