SCI 135 - First Exam Spring 2017

Links in each number connect to the pertinent sections of the online book.

MULTIPLE CHOICE. 

 

On the line to the left, place the letter of the choice that best answers the question.

Three Points Each.                  NOTE:  "e" answers are never the correct answer.

 

1.  Traits that link butterflies, bats, and airplanes are based upon

_______                  a. Taxonomy            b.  Analogy             c. Ideology

                              d.  Homology            e.  Splattiness

 

 

2.   What is the best reason that scientific evidence for a hypothesis should

                        never be considered proof?

__________           a.  There’s not enough evidence accumulated

‘                            b.  Other hypotheses might explain the same results

c.  Controls have not been run

d.  Only theories can be proven

                                    e.  Because it’s in the Secret Rulebook

 

 

3.   All of the energy-moving chemical reactions in an organism or system:

__________              a.  Metabolism          b.  Organics               c.  Molecules

    d.  Respiration          e.  The icky stuff

 

 

4.  Which is an example of spontaneous generation?

_______                   a. Viruses causing disease        b.  Elephants becoming mammoths

    c. Bones becoming fossils       d.  Horse hairs becoming worms

                                                e.  Every generation likes to think it’s more spontaneous

 

                       

                        5.   What first-level production process uses hot chemicals as

                                                an energy source?

_______                    a.  Thermosynthesis                         b.  Photosynthesis

                                c.  Chemosynthesis                          d.  Hydrosynthesis

                                                            e.  Soupysynthesis

 

                       

                       6.   Molecular clocks use what units for their timing?

_______                    a.  DNA mutations                                  b.  Radioactive decay

                                 c.  Change in molecule function               d.  Divergence units

                                                e.  Can I set one up on my phone?

 

 

 

7.   In an experiment, an artifact is a

__________              a.  Reliable result                 b.  Lab apparatus set-up

    c.  Type of conclusion         d.  Product of the test process

                                    e.  Something you learn about Vincent Van Gogh

 

 

8.    As materials and energy move from beginning to end of a food chain,

                         eventually

__________              a.  Both are lost                          b.  Energy is recycled and materials are lost

    c.  Both are recycled                   d.  Materials are recycled and energy is lost

                                    e.  Things happen along the way that no one wants to know about

 

 

                        9.   What concept exists for when your working hypothesis is wrong?

_______                    a.  Negative proof                 b.  Anti-results          c.  Null hypothesis

                                 d.  Negative hypothesis                e.  Um, dude, you’re wrong!

 

 

10.  Which of these is the current best definition of what makes different species?

__________              a.  Can’t breed together                         b.  Won’t breed together in Nature

    c.  Physically distinctive                         d. Can’t breed & produce fertile offspring

                          e.  Never eat together in the cafeteria

 

 

                        11.  Most biological data is ________  but is “forced” to be ___________

_______                    a.  Subjective…objective               b.  Quantitative…qualitative

                                 c.  Objective…subjective               d.  Qualitative…quantitative

                                                            e.  Smelly…slimy too

 

 

 12.  The power of a control test is how it

_______                   a.  Repeats the experiment                           b. Provides a comparison

    c.  Gives better measurements                     d. Works with living things

                                                 e.  Gives, um, you know, control

 

 

SHORT ANSWER.  

 

Answer any eight of the following questions for 4 Points Each.

Note:  if you answer more than eight, only the first eight will be corrected.

You can get partial credit on these answers.

 

1.   What two approaches are often used to lower the impact of pure chance on the outcome of an experiment?

 

 

 

 

2.   Briefly define what, in general, confounding factors are.

 

 

 

 

3.   What features makes a species colonial?

 

 

 

 

4.   Briefly explain “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.”

 

 

 

 

5.   What are two basic features of living things that viruses don’t have?

 

 

 

 

 

6.   What are two basic features of living things that viruses do have?

 

 

 

 

 

7.   Put in order these levels of interactions within individual organisms, small to large:    cells, organs, organ systems, tissues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.   What, technically, is a gene?

 

 

9.   Respiration is a cellular process that does what?

 

 

10.   What are two different categories of experimental models?

 

 

 

 

11.  What are two different categories that an observation can be made that aren’t just a direct experience of the observer’s senses?

 

 

 

 

 

12. Put the following groups in order from the largest to the smallest:  Class, Family, Genus, Kingdom, Order, Phylum, Species, Suborder, Superfamily.

 

1

 

4

 

7

 

2

 

5

 

8

 

3

 

6

 

9

13.  In experimental design, how does a variable vary?

 

 

 

14.  What is spontaneous generation?  Define, don’t give an example.

 

 

 

15.  What, in order, are the basic levels of a food chain?

 

 

 

 

 

16.  What are two different features that a scientifically-useful hypothesis should have?

 

 

 

 

LONG ANSWER. 

 

Answer any four of the following questions for Eight Points Each.

Note:  if you answer more than four, only the first four will be corrected.

            You can get partial credit on these answers.

 

1.   For four of the six basic Kingdoms of Life, give the name of the Kingdom and enough features to clearly set that Kingdom's members apart from those of the other five.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.   Give two different rules that apply to each specifically in binomial nomenclature:

 

FIRST

WORD

 

 

 

 

 

SECOND

WORD

 

 

 

 

 

ENTIRE

NAME

 

 

 

 

 

3.   For each of these nuclear particles, give two basic features, plus one overall feature that comes from their total number in an atom.

 

 

 

NEUTRON

Feature

 

 

Feature

 

 

Feature from

total

 



PROTON

Feature

 

 

Feature

 

 

Feature from

total

 


4.   Answer for asexual reproduction -

BASIC

DEFINITION

 

STRENGTH

(COMPARED

TO SEXUAL)

WEAKNESS

(COMPARED

TO SEXUAL)

COMMON

ADAPTATION

TO COUNTERACT

WEAKNESS

 

5.   Put these in order so that each later level contains the earlier ones:  Community, Ecosystems, Individuals, Populations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.  What are four basic features that all living things are supposed to have?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.   Two different processes that take some energy from the environment to make chemical bond energy in fuel molecules -

Type of environmental energy used by each named process -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Link to Answer Key

 

 

BONUS QUESTIONS. 

Answer as many as you are able.  Wrong answers will not result in points being lost from the main exam.   You can get partial credit on these answers.

 

Biologically, what does gender mean?  Three Points.

 

 

There are two major reasons why it’s very difficult to develop drugs to eliminate viruses.  What are they?  Three Points Each.

 

 

When Francesco Redi ran his first meat - maggot experiment, what was “wrong” with the first trial?  Four Points.

 

 

For triple-blind tests, what group is added?  Three Points.

 

 

What’s an example from the notes of a concept heavily influenced by postmodernism?

Three Points.

 

 

What turned out to be wrong with the aluminum produces Alzheimer’s experiment?  Three Points.

 

 

Why is the classification guy known as Linnaeus if that wasn’t his name?  Three Points.

 

 

What changed between the “old” five-Kingdom system and the “new” six-Kingdom system?  Three Points.

 

 

Some living things live in “extreme” environments.  For Two Points Each, what are examples of types of such environments?

 

 

Why does an atomic nucleus need a “sticky” force inside it and to be stabilized?  Three Points.

 

 

 

  

SCI 135 

Michael McDarby

 

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