JAMB Biology Syllabus for UTME 2027

Our summary: The features that set living things apart from non-living things.

Contents

Objectives

• differentiate between the characteristics of living and non-living things.

Our summary: The parts of plant and animal cells, what each part does, and how the two kinds of cell compare.

Contents

Objectives

• identify the structures of plant and animal cells.
• analyse the functions of the components of plant and animal cells.
• compare and contrast the structure of plant and animal cells.

Our summary: The levels at which life is organised, from a single cell to a whole organism.

Contents

Objectives

• trace the levels of organization among organisms in their logical sequence in relation to the five levels of organization of living organisms.

Our summary: The five kingdoms with examples, and how structure grows more complex from simple organisms to mammals.

Contents

Objectives

• analyse external features and characteristics of the listed organisms.
• apply the knowledge from (i) above to demonstrate increase in structural complexity.
• trace the stages in the life histories of the listed organisms.
• apply the knowledge of the life histories to demonstrate gradual transition from life in water to life on land.
• trace the evolution of the listed plants.
• trace the advancement of the invertebrate animals.
• determine the economic importance of the insects studied.
• assess their values to the environment.
• classify plants into annuals, biennials and perennials.
• trace the advancement of multi-cellular animals.
• determine their economic importance.

Our summary: How colour helps organisms hide or warn, such as countershading and warning colours.

Contents

Objectives

• Categorize countershading in fish, toads, snakes and warning colouration in mushrooms.

Our summary: Castes in social insects and behaviour such as basking, territory and surviving bad seasons.

Contents

Objectives

• Differentiate various castes in social insects like termites and their functions in their colony hive.
• Account for basking in lizards, territorial behaviour of other animals under unfavourable conditions (hibernation and aestivation).

Our summary: Body features that help organisms feed, defend themselves, find mates, control temperature and save water.

Contents

Objectives

• describe how the various structures, functions and behaviour adapt these organisms to their environment, and way of life.
• account for adaptation in organisms with respect to the following: obtaining food (beaks and legs of birds, mouthparts of insects, especially mosquito, butterfly and moth); protection and defence (stick insects, praying mantis and toad); securing mates (redhead male and female Agama lizards, display of feathers by birds); regulating body temperature (skin, feathers and hairs); conserving water (spines in plants and scales in mammals).

Our summary: Sections through root, stem and leaf, and where the supporting tissues lie.

Contents

Objectives

• identify the transverse sections of these organs.
• relate the structure of these organs to their functions.
• identify supporting tissues in plants (collenchyma, sclerenchyma, xylem and phloem fibres).
• describe the distribution of supporting tissues in roots, stem and leaf.

Our summary: How a mammal's internal organs are arranged and what they look like.

Contents

Objectives

• examine the arrangement of the mammalian internal organs.
• describe the appearance and position of the digestive, reproductive and excretory organs.

Our summary: Making food versus getting it from other organisms, with holozoic, parasitic, saprophytic and carnivorous-plant examples.

Contents

Objectives

• compare autotrophic and heterotrophic modes of nutrition.
• provide examples from both flowering and non-flowering plants.
• compare the photosynthetic and chemosynthetic modes of nutrition;
• differentiate the following examples of heterotrophic feeding: holozoic (sheep and man); parasitic (roundworm, tapeworm and Loranthus); saprophytic (Rhizopus and mushroom); carnivorous plants (sundew and bladderwort);
• determine their nutritional value.

Our summary: How green plants use light to make food, what they need for it, and how to show starch is made.

Contents

Objectives

• differentiate the light and dark reactions of photosynthesis.
• determine the necessity of light, carbon (IV) oxide and chlorophyll in photosynthesis.
• detect the presence of starch in a leaf as evidence of photosynthesis.

Our summary: The macro- and micro-elements plants need and the signs of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium shortage.

Contents

Objectives

• identify macro- and micro-elements required by plants.
• recognise the deficiency symptoms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Our summary: The classes of food, their sources and deficiency diseases, a balanced diet, and food tests.

Contents

Objectives

• indicate the sources of the various classes of food;
• determine the nutritional value of food
• relate the importance and deficiency (e.g. scurvy, rickets, kwashiorkor etc.) of each class of food;
• determine the importance of a balanced diet.
• detect the presence of a food type from the result of a given experiment.

Our summary: Mammalian teeth and dental formulae, the gut and its accessory organs, and how enzymes digest food.

Contents

Objectives

• describe the structure of a typical mammalian tooth
• differentiate the types of mammalian tooth and relate their structures to their functions.
• compare the dental formulae of man, sheep and dog.
• relate the structure of the various components of the alimentary canal and its accessory organs (liver, pancreas and gall bladder) to their functions.
• identify the general characteristics of digestive enzymes
• associate enzymes with digestion of carbohydrates, proteins and fats and
• determine the end products of these classes of food.

Our summary: Why organisms need transport, what is carried, and the channels, media and mechanisms in animals and plants.

Contents

Objectives

• determine the relationship between increase in size and complexity; and the need for the development of a transport system in plants and animals.
• determine the sources of materials and the forms in which they are transported.
• describe the general circulatory system
• compare specific functions of the hepatic portal vein, the pulmonary vein and artery, aorta, the renal artery and vein.
• identify the organs of the plant vascular system.
• understand the specific functions of the phloem and xylem.
• identify media of transportation (e.g. cytoplasm, cell sap, body fluid, blood and lymph)
• state the composition and functions of blood and lymph
• describe diffusion, osmosis, plasmolysis and turgidity as mechanisms of transportation in organisms.
• compare the various mechanisms of open circulatory systems in animal, transpiration pull, root pressure and active transport as mechanisms of transportation in plants.

Our summary: The organs and surfaces used for breathing, how stomata open and close, and gas exchange in plants and animals.

Contents

Objectives

• describe the following respiratory organs and surfaces with organisms in which they occur; body surface, gill, trachea, lungs, stomata and lenticel.
• describe the mechanism for the opening and closing of the stomata
• determine respiratory mechanisms in plants and animals.

Our summary: How cells release energy from food with and without oxygen, including fermentation by yeast.

Contents

Objectives

• explain the significance of respiration;
• describe a simplified outline of the chemical processes involved in glycolysis and Krebs cycle with reference to ATP production
• deduce gaseous exchange and products, exchange and production of heat energy during respiration from experimental set up.
• examine the role of oxygen in the liberation of energy for the activities of the living organisms
• explain the effect of insufficient supply of oxygen to the muscles.
• use yeast cells and sugar solution to demonstrate the process of fermentation.
• state the economic importance of yeasts.

Our summary: The excretory structures from contractile vacuole to kidney, how kidneys, lungs and skin excrete, and plant excretory products.

Contents

Objectives

• define the meaning and state the significance of excretion
• relate the characteristics of each structure with functions.
• relate the structure of the kidneys to the excretory and osmo-regulatory functions.
• identify the functions and excretory products of the lungs and the skin.
• deduce the economic importance of the excretory products of plants e.g. carbon (IV) oxide, oxygen, tannins, resins, gums, mucilage, alkaloids etc.

Our summary: Plant movements and supporting tissues, skeletons in animals, joints, and what skeletons do.

Contents

Objectives

• determine the need for support and movement in organisms
• identify supporting tissues in plants (collenchyma, sclerenchyma, xylem and phloem fibres)
• describe the distribution of supporting tissues in root, stem and leaf.
• relate the response of plants to the stimuli of light, water, gravity and touch
• identify the regions of growth in roots and shoots and the roles of auxins in tropism.
• relate the location of chitin, cartilage and bone to their supporting function.
• relate the structure and the general layout of the mammalian skeleton to their supportive, locomotive and respiratory function.
• differentiate types of joints using appropriate examples.
• apply the protective, supportive, locomotive and respiratory functions of the skeleton to the wellbeing of the animal.

Our summary: Fission, budding and natural and artificial vegetative propagation, and how they are used in farming.

Contents

Objectives

• differentiate between asexual and sexual reproduction
• apply natural vegetative propagation in crop production and multiplication.
• apply grafting, budding and layering in agricultural practices.

Our summary: Flower parts, pollination, fertilization and the fruits that form from them.

Contents

Objectives

• relate parts of flower to their functions and reproductive process.
• state the advantages of cross pollination.
• deduce the different types of placentation that develop into simple, aggregate, multiple and succulent fruits.

Our summary: Male and female reproductive organs, fertilization, the effect of the mother's health on the embryo, and regulating reproduction.

Contents

Objectives

• differentiate between male and female reproductive organs.
• relate their structure and function to the production of offspring.
• describe the fusion of gametes as a process of fertilization.
• relate the effects of the mother's health, nutrition and indiscriminate use of drugs on the developmental stages of the embryo up to birth.
• explain the modern methods of regulating reproduction e.g. in vitro fertilization and birth control

Our summary: What growth means and what seeds need to germinate, with epigeal and hypogeal germination.

Contents

Objectives

• apply the knowledge of the conditions necessary for germination on plant growth.
• differentiate between epigeal and hypogeal germination.

Our summary: The central and peripheral nervous systems, nerve impulses, and reflex, voluntary and conditioned actions.

Contents

Objectives

• apply the knowledge of the structure and function of the central nervous system in the coordination of body functions in organisms.
• illustrate reflex actions such as blinking of the eyes, knee jerk etc.
• differentiate between reflex and voluntary actions as well as conditioned reflexes such as salivation, riding a bicycle and swimming.

Our summary: The skin, nose, tongue, eye and ear, what each senses, and how their defects are corrected.

Contents

Objectives

• relate the listed sense organs with their functions.
• apply the knowledge of the structure and functions of these sense organs in detecting and correcting their defects.

Our summary: The endocrine glands and their hormones in animals, and plant hormones and their effects.

Contents

Objectives

• state the location of the listed endocrine glands in animals.
• relate the hormone produced by each of these glands to their functions.
• examine the effects of various phytohormones (e.g. auxins, gibberellin, cytokinin, and ethylene) on growth, tropism, flowering, fruit ripening and leaf abscission.

Our summary: How the body keeps its temperature, salt and water levels steady.

Contents

Objectives

• relate the function of hormones in homeostasis.

Our summary: The non-living and living factors that decide where organisms live, and how to measure them.

Contents

Objectives

• relate the effects of temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, altitude, salinity, turbidity, pH and edaphic (soil) conditions on the distribution of organisms.
• use appropriate equipment (secchi disc, thermometer, rain gauge) to measure abiotic factors.
• describe how the activities of plants/animals (particularly human) affect the distribution of organisms.

Our summary: Symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism, predation, competition and other ways organisms interact.

Contents

Objectives

• determine appropriate examples of symbiosis, parasitism, saprophytism, commensalism, mutualism, amensalism, competition, predation and cooperation among organisms.

Our summary: Food chains, food webs and trophic levels in particular habitats.

Contents

Objectives

• explain the distribution of organisms with food chains and food webs in particular habitats.
• define chains and webs

Our summary: How carbon, water and nitrogen cycle through living things and the environment.

Contents

Objectives

• describe the carbon cycle and its significance including the balance of atmospheric oxygen and carbon (IV) oxide and global warming.
• assess the effects of water cycle on other nutrient cycles.
• relate the roles of bacteria and leguminous plants in the cycling of nitrogen.

Our summary: Water and land habitats, the organisms found in them and how they are adapted.

Contents

Objectives

• associate plants and animals with each of these habitats.
• relate adaptive features to the habitats in which organisms live.

Our summary: Nigeria's rainforest, savanna, desert and highland biomes and where they are.

Contents

Objectives

• locate biomes in regions
• apply the knowledge of the features of the listed local biomes in determining the characteristics of different regions of Nigeria.

Our summary: Population density and overcrowding, what controls population size, and ecological succession.

Contents

Objectives

• determine the reasons for rapid changes in human population and the consequences of overcrowding.
• compute/calculate density as the number of organisms per unit area.
• deduce the effect of these factors on the size of population.
• determine the interactions between biotic and abiotic factors (e.g. drought or scarcity of water which leads to food shortage and lack of space which causes increase in disease rates).
• trace the sequence in succession to the climax stage of stability in plant population.

Our summary: What causes competition, competition within and between species, and how it links to succession.

Contents

Objectives

• Relate increase in population, diseases, shortage of food and space with intra- and inter-specific competition.
• Determine niche differentiation as a means of reducing intra-specific competition.
• Relate competition to succession.

Our summary: Soil types, what soil is made of, and how fertility is lost, renewed and conserved.

Contents

Objectives

• identify physical properties of different soil types based on simple measurement of particle size, porosity or water retention ability.
• determine the amounts of air, water, humus and capillarity in different soil types experimentally.
• relate soil characteristics, types and components to the healthy growth of plants
• relate such factors as loss of inorganic matter, compaction, leaching, erosion of the top soil and repeated cropping with one variety.
• apply the knowledge of the practice of contour ridging, terracing, mulching, poly-cropping, strip-cropping, use of organic and inorganic fertilizers, crop rotation, shifting cultivation, etc. to enhance soil conservation.

Our summary: Common, endemic and easily spread diseases, their vectors and agents, and how vaccination prevents them.

Contents

Objectives

• identify ecological conditions that favour the spread of common endemic and potentially epidemic diseases e.g. malaria, meningitis, dracunculiasis, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, typhoid fever and cholera.
• relate the biology of the vector or agent of each disease with its spread and control
• use the knowledge of the causative organisms, mode of transmission and symptoms of the listed diseases to their prevention - treatment - control
• apply the principles of inoculation and vaccination on disease prevention.

Our summary: What drug abuse and addiction are, commonly abused drugs, their effects and prevention.

Contents

Objectives

• define drug abuse and addiction
• list the commonly abused drugs
• state the effects of drug abuse on human health

Our summary: Air, water and soil pollution, their effects and control, sanitation, and the health agencies involved.

Contents

Objectives

• categorize pollution into air, water and soil
• relate the effects of common pollutants to human health and environmental degradation.
• determine the methods by which each pollutant may be controlled.
• explain the importance of sanitation with emphasis on solid waste, sewage disposal, community health and personal hygiene.
• assess the roles and functions of international and national health agencies e.g. World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), International Red Cross Society (IRCS) and the ministries of health and environment.

Our summary: Conserving renewable and non-renewable resources, the bodies that do it, and Nigeria's game reserves and national parks.

Contents

Objectives

• apply the various methods of conservation of both the renewable and non-renewable natural resources for the protection of our environment for present and future generations.
• outline the benefits of conserving natural resources, prevention of desertification.
• identify the bodies responsible for the conservation of resources at the national and international levels e.g. Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigeria National Parks, World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and their activities.
• identify and state the location and importance of game reserves and National parks in Nigeria

Our summary: Morphological and physiological variation, continuous and discontinuous, and what causes it.

Contents

Objectives

• differentiate between continuous and discontinuous variations with examples.
• relate the role of environmental conditions, habitat and the genetic constitution to variation.
• measure heights and weights of pupils of the same age group
• plot graphs of frequency distribution of the heights and weights.
• observe and record various colour patterns in some plants and animals.
• apply classification of fingerprints in identity detection.
• identify some specific examples of physiological variation among human population.
• categorize people according to their physiological variation.

Our summary: Using blood groups and fingerprints in crime detection, blood transfusion and paternity cases.

Contents

Objectives

• apply the knowledge of blood groups in blood transfusion and determination of paternity.
• use discontinuous variation in crime detection.

Our summary: Characters that are inherited and characters that are not.

Contents

Objectives

• determine heritable and non-heritable characters with examples.

Our summary: DNA and chromosome structure, and how genes separate at meiosis and recombine at fertilization.

Contents

Objectives

• illustrate simple structure of DNA
• illustrate segregation of genes at meiosis and recombination of genes at fertilization to account for the process of transmission of characters from parents to offsprings.
• deduce that segregation of genes occurs during gamete formation and that recombination of genes at fertilization is random in nature.

Our summary: Working out the likely offspring of a cross, and how sex is decided.

Contents

Our summary: Using genetics in breeding, marriage counselling and medicine, and the debates around GMOs and gene therapy.

Contents

Objectives

• analyze data on cross-breeding experiments.
• apply the principles of heredity in the production of new varieties of crops and livestock through cross-breeding.
• deduce advantages and disadvantages of out-breeding and in-breeding.
• analyze elementarily the contentious issues of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and gene therapy and biosafety.
• apply the knowledge of heredity in marriage counselling with particular reference to blood grouping, sickle-cell anaemia and the Rhesus factors.
• describe the significance of using recombinant DNA materials in the production of important medical products such as insulin, interferon and enzymes.

Our summary: Traits such as baldness, haemophilia and colour blindness carried on the sex chromosomes.

Contents

Objectives

• identify characters that are sex linked.

Our summary: What biotechnology is and how it is used in farming, medicine, drugs and food.

Contents

Objectives

• define biotechnology
• list some applications in agriculture, medicine, pharmaceutical and food industries

Our summary: Lamarck's, Darwin's and the organic theory of how living things change over time.

Contents

Objectives

• relate organic evolution as the sum total of all adaptive changes that have taken place over a long period of time resulting in the diversity of forms, structures and functions among organisms.
• explain the contributions of Lamarck and Darwin to the theory of evolution.

Our summary: Fossils, comparative anatomy, physiology and embryology, genetics and mutation as evidence for evolution.

Contents

Objectives

• state the evidences in support of organic evolution
• mention the evidences for evolution such as fossil records, comparative anatomy, physiology and embryology.
• trace evolutionary trends in plants and animals.
• state the evidence of modern evolutionary theories such as genetic studies and the role of mutation.