Year 11 HSC Biology is composed of four modules which take you through seeing biology at the cellular level, organ level, organism level and finally at the ecosystem level. It is about learning to zoom in and out of these levels when thinking in a biological way. NESA designed the syllabus to follow this flow.
Question Banks.
Learn.
Year 11 HSC Biology Course Content
Module 1: Cells as the basis of life
- Electron microscope
- Prokaryotic & Eukaryotic cells
- Animal cell vs plant cell organelles
- Enzymes (extension)
Module 2: Organisation of living things
- Surface area to volume ratio and diffusion and osmosis Experiment
- The human digestive System
- Human Circulatory System
- Four types of tissue (extension)
Module 3: Biological diversity
- Ecosystem pressure part 1
- Ecosystem pressure part 2
- Environmental selective pressure
- The theory of evolution by natural selection
- Micro evolutionary changes
- Punctuated equilibrium and gradualism
- Convergent and divergent evolution
- The cane toad
- Evidence for evolution
Module 4: Ecosystem dynamics
Master.
Year 11 HSC Biology Study Resources
- Biology study notes
- Sample internal exams
- Sample preliminary exams
Our advice to do well is to first learn the content in our learn section, then put what we have taught you to the test in our master section. Following this, check your answers and go back to the learn section. Identify your areas of weakness. This is the most important part – don’t assume you get things right, know you got them right. From here you can go back to our learn section. Focus on understanding what you missed previously so you don’t make the same mistakes on exam day. Good luck and we hope our resources have been valuable for you.
External resources
These aren’t specific to the HSC biology year 11 syllabus, however, there is some useful information here.
Joshua Mills has a bachelor of Adv Science (medical science and medicinal chemistry) from USYD. He founded Edzion.com in 2019 – an online complimentary education company to support and inspire high school science students. Currently he’s undertaking higher degree research, working in a team on a therapeutic to treat children’s bone cancer. In his spare time, he runs ultra-marathons.