Health and Diseases
MYP Sciences Framework — Life Science: Health and Disease
Nearly every question on this topic is testing one of two skills: can you tell a cell from a non-cell, and can you tell a correlation from a cause? Bacteria and viruses look almost the same on a size chart until you ask what's actually inside them — that single distinction (a working prokaryotic cell vs. genetic material in a protein coat) answers half the exam questions you'll ever see on pathogens. The other half comes from lifestyle diseases and vaccination, where the examiner isn't checking whether you know the word 'smoking' — they're checking whether you can read a graph properly and explain a mechanism instead of just naming a risk factor.
Overview: How This Topic Is Actually Examined
Disease is split into two big families, and mixing them up costs marks in almost every paper. Communicable (infectious) diseases are caused by pathogens — bacteria, viruses, fungi or protists — that can pass from one host to another. Non-communicable diseases cannot be 'caught'; they develop through a mix of genetics, age and — critically for this course — lifestyle choices like diet, smoking and inactivity.
- A pathogen is any organism or particle that causes disease — not every microbe is a pathogen (gut bacteria are mostly harmless or helpful).
- The immune system responds to communicable disease with white blood cells and antibodies; vaccination is a deliberate, safe way of training that response before a real infection arrives.
- Antibiotic resistance links the pathogens sub-topic directly to public health decisions — this is exactly the scenario in the MRSA/vancomycin question you'll see later.
- Command terms matter more than students think: 'state' wants a fact, 'explain' wants a mechanism with a reason, and 'deduce' wants you to read a pattern out of data you weren't explicitly told.
The shape of the chapter
Command terms this topic loves
| Command term | What it demands | AO | Mark-earning move |
|---|---|---|---|
| State | Give a short factual answer with no justification needed. | AO1 | One correct word/number = full mark; extra explanation is not required and won't earn more. |
| Identify | Pick out a specific feature/structure/pathogen from data or a diagram. | AO1 | Must name the exact structure (e.g. 'cell wall', not 'outer layer') to score. |
| Explain | State a fact AND give the reason or mechanism behind it. | AO2 | A bare fact with no 'because...' link only gets half the available marks. |
| Analyse | Break down data to show how parts relate, usually comparing two data sets. | AO3 | Needs an explicit comparison ('whereas', 'in contrast'), not two separate descriptions. |
| Deduce | Reach a conclusion from given data using logic, not recalled facts. | AO3 | Marks require you to reference the actual numbers/table given, not general knowledge. |
Key point
Overview