AP Biology · Unit 4 of 8

AP Biology Unit 4: Cell Communication and Cell Cycle

2 ready-made review sets for this unit, 33 questions in all, to play as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.

See the sets

A question from the sets

The three stages of cell signaling?

Signal Transduction Pathway
S Phase (Synthesis)
Autocrine Signaling
Reception, Transduction, ResponseRight answer

From Unit 4: Cell Communication (part 1), 17 questions.

What Unit 4 covers

Unit 4 is how cells talk to each other and how they divide. Cells signal by direct contact, to nearby cells, or over long distances with hormones; a signal is received, relayed inside the cell by second messengers and phosphorylation cascades, and turned into a response. The unit then covers negative and positive feedback, the cell cycle and its checkpoints, the cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases that drive it, apoptosis, and how losing that control can lead to cancer.

Where students slip

Most signal molecules do not enter the cell: they bind a receptor on the surface and the message is relayed inside. Steroid hormones, which cross the membrane and bind receptors inside the cell, are the best-known exception.
Positive feedback isn't "good" feedback. It pushes a variable further from its set point, as in childbirth or fruit ripening.
DNA is copied in S phase, before mitosis begins. From then until anaphase, each chromosome is two sister chromatids.
A kinase adds a phosphate group; a phosphatase removes it.

The sets

Play this set opens the set in splycr, where you can read every question and host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account, and students join with the code on the board. A free account lets you copy a set and edit it.

The questions come from the Biology by Bradford flashcard bank, written by an IB and AP Biology teacher. Each one plays as multiple choice, and the wrong options are other answers from the same set.

Unit 4: Cell Communication (part 1)

17 questions

The three stages of cell signaling?
Answer: Reception, Transduction, Response
An enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from ATP to a protein (turning it "on")?
Answer: Protein Kinase
Mechanism that amplifies a response to move further away from the set point?
Answer: Positive Feedback

Play this setand 14 more questions

Unit 4: Cell Communication (part 2)

16 questions

Phase where sister chromatids are pulled apart to opposite poles?
Answer: Anaphase
Enzyme that is active only when attached to a cyclin?
Answer: CDK (Cyclin-Dependent Kinase)
The cell enters this non-dividing "resting" state if it fails the G1 checkpoint?
Answer: G0 Phase

Play this setand 13 more questions

Game modes that suit this unit

Every set plays in all eight modes. These two fit this unit best.

Splycr
The phases of mitosis and the steps of signal transduction come in order, and students who half-know them slip somewhere in the middle. A streak raises the multiplier to 3× and one slip drops it to 1×, so knowing the whole sequence pays.
Throne
One student holds the throne and the class answers to take it, and a wrong answer from the champion costs double. It makes a good end to the unit, with a volunteer who thinks they know the cell cycle.