Primary 6 · Science · Diversity: Fungi & Bacteria
Diversity: Fungi & Bacteria questions for Primary 6 Science
9 questions to work through online, 2 of them written out the way the paper asks. Answer and you get the working straight away, then a score at the end. No sign-up, and you can retake it as often as you like.
- Place in a food chain
- Reasoning without decomposers
- Useful microbes
- Reading results
- Preserving food
- Why fungi are their own group
- Naming the role
- Naming what is returned
- Applying the ideas
| Bin | Damp | Warm | Air | Months to rot down |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 2 |
| Q | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | 10 |
| R | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | 8 |
| S | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | 9 |
Answers and explanations for all 9 questions
Every answer with the reasoning behind it. Worth reading after you have tried the set — or on its own, if you are a parent marking it.
When the fox in the food chain above dies, what returns the materials in its body to the soil?
Answer: decomposers such as fungi and bacteria
Decomposers break the dead fox down and release its materials into the soil, where plants can take them up and start the chain again.
What would happen to a woodland over many years if all its decomposers were removed?
Answer: Dead material would build up and the soil would run short of minerals.
Nothing would rot. Leaves and dead animals would pile up while the minerals locked inside them never returned to the soil for the trees to reuse.
Which of these depend on fungi or bacteria doing something useful?
Answer: A, B, C and D
All four are microbes put to work: bacteria in yoghurt and sewage, yeast in bread, and both in a compost heap.
Based on the table above, which conclusion is correct?
Answer: Decomposers work fastest when moisture, warmth and air are all present.
P had all three and took 2 months. Removing any single condition pushed it to 8, 9 or 10 months, so all three matter together.
Why does food last longer in a freezer than in a refrigerator?
Answer: The lower temperature slows the microbes down even further.
Cold slows microbes rather than killing them, and the colder it is the slower they work. That is why frozen food keeps for months and chilled food for days.
Which two statements explain why fungi are not classified as plants?
Answer: A and B only
The defining difference is food. A plant has chlorophyll and makes its own; a fungus has neither and must take food from what it grows on.
The organisms that break down the dead remains of everything in the food chain above have a special name. What are they called?
Answer: decomposers
Organisms that break down dead material are decomposers.
When decomposers break down a dead animal, substances are released that plants can take up through their roots. What are these substances called?
Answer: minerals
Decomposers release minerals into the soil for plants to take up.
Why do farmers sometimes plough crop stubble back into a field instead of burning it?
Answer: Decomposers break it down and return its minerals to the soil.
Burning sends the material into the air; ploughing it in feeds the decomposers, which release the minerals back where the next crop's roots can reach them.