← Back to the activity

Year 10 Science — Reproduction: how life continues

Tell asexual reproduction from sexual, name the parts of a flower and follow pollen through to a seed, and describe fertilisation and the reproductive cycle in animals and humans.

Name: ________________________

Before you start

The parts of a flower, each one named.

123456
  1. 1. The green flap at the base — a sepal
  2. 2. The broad flap sweeping out to the side — a petal
  3. 3. The small sac on the end of the slender stalk — the anther of a stamen
  4. 4. The flattened cap on top of the central column — the stigma
  5. 5. The thin central column — the style
  6. 6. The rounded swelling at the base of the column — the ovary

Sepals and petals are the two outer whorls. The stamen is the male part and the pistil — stigma, style and ovary together — is the female one.

  1. 1.An egg released at ovulation is not fertilised. What happens next in the cycle?

    • a) The egg implants in the uterus and pregnancy begins
    • b) The lining of the uterus thickens further and stays in place
    • c) The thickened lining of the uterus sheds, along with some blood
    • d) A second egg is released from the same ovary that day

  2. 2.A wheat plant makes huge numbers of small, light pollen grains and has a long feathery stigma. What is it pollinated by?

    • a) Insects such as bees and butterflies
    • b) Water currents
    • c) The wind
    • d) Birds such as sunbirds

  3. 3.A flower is fertilised. What becomes of the ovary?

    • a) It becomes the seed, while the ovules become the fruit
    • b) It falls away once the seeds are formed
    • c) It grows into the pollen tube
    • d) It enlarges and develops into the fruit

  4. 4.A frog lays thousands of eggs in a pond while a bird lays a handful in a nest. What does the chapter say about the two strategies?

    • a) The frog's fertilisation is internal and the bird's external
    • b) Both fertilise internally, and the difference lies in nest-building
    • c) Survival is the same in both; the frog simply lays more
    • d) The frog's fertilisation is external and survival is low; the bird's is internal and survival is better

  5. 5.Put the journey from pollination to seed in order, starting from Pollen lands on a stigma it is compatible with.

    • The male gamete travels down the tube to the ovule
    • Pollen lands on a stigma it is compatible with
    • The ovule becomes a seed while the ovary swells into a fruit
    • The pollen grain grows a pollen tube down through the style
    • It fuses with the egg cell, and the fertilised egg is a zygote

  6. 6.A gardener grows twenty plants from cuttings of one rose bush. How do the new plants compare with the parent?

    • a) They are genetically identical to it, because one parent and mitosis were involved
    • b) They vary from it, because cuttings mix genetic material from two parents
    • c) They vary, because meiosis takes place when a cutting roots
    • d) They are identical to each other but different from the parent

  7. 7.What is the one-word name for the transfer of pollen grains from a stamen to a stigma?

  8. 8.Tap the part of this flower that produces the pollen grains.

    Write the number of the part.

    123456

Answer key — Year 10 Science — Reproduction: how life continues

  1. 1. c) The thickened lining of the uterus sheds, along with some blood
  2. 2. c) The wind
  3. 3. d) It enlarges and develops into the fruit
  4. 4. d) The frog's fertilisation is external and survival is low; the bird's is internal and survival is better
  5. 5. 1. Pollen lands on a stigma it is compatible with 2. The pollen grain grows a pollen tube down through the style 3. The male gamete travels down the tube to the ovule 4. It fuses with the egg cell, and the fertilised egg is a zygote 5. The ovule becomes a seed while the ovary swells into a fruit
  6. 6. a) They are genetically identical to it, because one parent and mitosis were involved
  7. 7. pollination
  8. 8. 3 — The small sac on the end of the slender stalk