Sexual and asexual reproduction
The notches along these leaves are growing tiny new plants. Each one drops off, roots, and grows into a copy of its parent. One parent, no flowers, no seeds: that is asexual reproduction. Making a new individual from two sex cells is sexual reproduction.
By the end of this page you can
- Give Caribbean examples of asexual reproduction
- Compare sexual and asexual reproduction
- Put the stages of sexual reproduction in order
- Define gamete, fertilisation, zygote and clone
- Answer exam questions on the two kinds of reproduction
Goals tick themselves off as you try the activities below.
Photo: EnrichIndegi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped (date stamp removed), JPEG q70.
Mother of thousands, a _Bryophyllum_. Its Caribbean relative, leaf of life, grows new plants from the notches of a fallen leaf in the same way.
How often it shows up in past papers
Paper 1 counts come from our past-paper bank of CSEC Biology Paper 1s. Paper 2 is not included yet.
One parent, many copies
Farmers use asexual reproduction every day, because every new plant is a copy of a good parent. Tap each card.
Sexual or asexual?
Each feature belongs to one kind of reproduction. Tap a feature and the centre tells you which.
Sexual or asexual?
Tap a feature on the list to see which kind of reproduction it belongs to.
Variation matters: if a disease strikes a field of clones, every plant is equally at risk. A varied population is more likely to have some survivors.
From gametes to offspring
Put the stages of sexual reproduction in order. Drag or tap each card into its slot.
What must each parent make first?
Seven terms to know cold
Say what each term means before you flip the card. Comparison questions reward the exact words.
Six quick questions, then a real one
Pick an answer to see why it’s right or wrong.
Which of these is an example of asexual reproduction?
The offspring of asexual reproduction are
Why do offspring from sexual reproduction show variation?
A farmer grows a field of identical banana plants from suckers. What is the main risk?
The fusion of a male gamete and a female gamete is called
Which is an advantage of asexual reproduction?
exam style · 3 marks
State THREE differences between sexual and asexual reproduction.
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Practice questions are written by My V.I.P. Academy. They are not official CXC papers.