Week 10: Sample of marking guidelines and feedback on an exam-style question.

Module 9.8: The Human Story

Q: Analyse the impact of modern medicine on human evolution.  (7 marks)

Answer: Modern medicine is the contemporary science of healing by applying health science, biomedical research, and medical technology to diagnose and treat injury and disease, typically through medication. Some examples of modern medicine are vaccinations, antiseptics, antibiotics, pre-natal diagnosis, in-vitro fertilisation and birth control. The effect of all of these is reduced mortality and increased life span. For example, childbirth is no longer responsible for the death of many women. Children survive because of vaccination programs.

Biological evolution is a change to the gene pool of a population. Through the mechanism of natural selection, heritable changes may occur in populations over many generations. Modern medicine changes the possible gene pool as fewer people are dying and are no longer selected by the environment. Diseases that once acted as selecting agents are not as relevant. Genetic defects can be passed on to the next generation because many sufferers live long enough to reproduce while before they would have died at an earlier age. These genes therefore stay in the gene pool and are not eliminated. For example, a form of eye cancer in young children, known as retinoblastoma, is a rare disease.  Prior to the development of surgical procedures to treat this cancer, it was virtually always fatal.  Its victims died before they could pass it on to another generation.  With adequate treatment, 70% of the patients can now survive retinoblastoma and can transmit it to at least 50% of their offspring. 

Marking guidelines:

Outcomes assessed: H8, Bands 6

Criteria	Marks
·      Defines modern medicine and evolution ·      Provides examples of modern medicine and evolution ·      Names 2 effects of modern medicine ·      Relates the implications of modern medicine on evolution	6-7
·      Defines modern medicine and evolution ·      Names 2 effects of modern medicine ·      Relates the implications of modern medicine on evolution	4-5
·      Defines modern medicine and/or evolution ·      Names 2 effects of modern medicine	2-3
·      Provides some relevant information	1

Feedback

Begin an answer by identifying and defining components. For example, Evolution is.......

Provide examples to support arguments.

The key to an analysis is drawing out the relationship between the components.

Reference

Biology Stage 6 Syllabus. NSW: Board of studies. Retrieved  from  http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/biology-st6-syl-from2010.pdf