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SC 135 - First Exam Fall 2009
Answer Key
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.
The typical pathway of energy in a food chain:
___C___ a. Consumers, decomposers, producers b. Producers, decomposers, consumers
c. Producers, consumers, decomposers
d. Decomposers, producers, consumers e. Red Bull, jittery student, you don't want to know...
...producers make the fuel using energy from the environment, the consumers
use that fuel, and decomposers recycle the
materials (but not the energy) back to the producers.
2. Which confounding factor would be most associated with
postmodernism?
___A___
a. Experimenter bias b. Statistical error c. Outside interference d. Null hypothesis
e. One with a post in it (but a modern one)
...postmodernism is concerned with how much the beliefs of the humans doing
stuff affects the stuff itself.
3.
Fossils are generally used to compare
___B___ a. Analogies
b. Homologies c. Emergent properties d. Genera e. Stock portfolios
...comparisons are made of basic structural components.
4.
In modern science, peer review usually involves
___B___ a. Research supervisors
b. Journal editors c. Laboratory colleagues d. Fellow students e. Bad habits
...many scientists only have access to peers when they're having papers
reviewed for publication.
5. Which relationship "chain" is correct?
___D___ a. Tissues are in cells which are in organs b. Organs are in cells which are in tissues c. Organs are in tissues which are in cells
d. Cells are in tissues which are in organs e. Is it okay if I run screaming from the room?
...it's the basic progression.
6.
Which would be a direct observation?
___B___ a. You see a cell through a microscope
b. You hear a bird but can't see it c. You read about a bright light seen in the sky last night
d. You listen to a friend's story about how a skunk smells e. You meet Steven Spielberg?
...the observation is limited, but it's still coming in directly through
your own personal senses, not second-hand or through some
sort of device.
7.
Which term is applied as "your idea is wrong"?___C___ a. Negative proof b. Confounding factor
c. Null hypothesis d. Anti-conclusion e. A slap upside the head
...it's always the alternative hypothesis.
8. In a test of new drugs, all test groups get the same basic treatment in order to figure in the
___D___ a. Double blind b. Treatment effect c. Patient effect
d. Placebo effect e. Most ways to divert money
...just being treated has an effect, sometimes a profound one.
9.
ATP is
___A___
a. An energy-carrying molecule b. A light-capturing molecule c. A genetic coding molecule d. All of these
e. Something people put in their cars
...it's what usually supplies the energy directly to cell processes (made
from energy in the fuel in the food chain).
10. Two isotopes of the same element would have
___B___ a. Different proton numbers but the same neutron numbers
b. Different neutron numbers but the same proton numbers
c. The same neutron and proton numbers d. Different neutron and proton numbers
e. The amazing ability to annoy everybody
...isotopes vary by neutron numbers - proton numbers determine which element
an atom is.
11. Which experiment's main weakness is that its evidence is anecdotal?
___A___
a. A young gorilla is taught sign language b. A drug test control group is totally untreated
c. A field test of 100 elk is impossible to run a control for d. A confounding factor is known but completely ignored
e. My particular study approach for this question
...you're looking for an experiment based on a single case or very few
cases.
12. If the terms of an experimental set-up are not clearly defined, the experiment will not have
___D___ a. A control b. A variable c. Any evidence
d. Reproducibility e. That proper coolness factor
...someone else ought to be able to redo your experiment and get similar
results, but they can't if you haven't been clear
about how to do it.
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.
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1. What is the current, most generally accepted definition of what makes a group a
species?
...it's a group that, under natural conditions, only reproduces within that
group.
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2.
What are the two basic categories of experimental models? |
Other living things (substitutes, like mice)
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Simulations (often with computers.
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3. What are two different features a proton would have? |
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One positive charge |
Single unit of atomic mass
/ weight |
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4.
Put this list in order so that each level contains the previous one - community,
ecosystem, population. |
1
Population
Made up of all of the individuals of a species there |
2 Community
All of the populations there |
3 Ecosystem
Community plus non-living aspects |
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5.
What are the energy sources for - |
PHOTOSYNTHESIS?
Light
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CHEMOSYNTHESIS?
Heat and/or unstable chemicals |
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6.
What defines a colonial organism (unicellular or otherwise)?
...individuals that band in groups and split the jobs up among them.
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7.
In general, what are the two different ways that biological hypotheses get tested? |
Controlled Experiments
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Field tests
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8. Briefly explain how a molecular clock is supposed to work.
...each differing
mutation in two related groups represents a "tick" in time since they split
from the same ancestor group.
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9. Put the following groups in order from the largest to the smallest: Class, Family,
Genus, Kingdom, Order, Phylum, Species, Suborder, Superclass. |
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Kingdom |
4 Class |
7 Family |
| 2
Phylum |
5 Order |
8 Genus |
| 3
Superclass |
6 Suborder |
9 Species |
10. What does "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" mean?
...as an embryo develops, it lives through its group's evolutionary history.
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11.
What has the strongest driving influence on Natural Selection? (What part of
"Nature"? )
...changes in the conditions are most likely to drive changes in the groups
that live there.
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12. In the history of Kingdom-based classification, |
Which Kingdom
was eventually
Minerals or Rocks
dropped? |
Which was the
first Kingdom to
Fungi , which had been considered plants
split from the basic
two? |
13.
Why is the fossil record for many groups fairly incomplete?
...organisms have to have the
right (hard) parts and die under the proper conditions. Soft-bodied
organisms fail on the first, land organisms often fail on the second.
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14. In an experiment, what is an artifact?
...it's a result that comes not from what's being tested, but is somehow
produced by the way the test is being done.
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15. What are two reasons why embryos retain similarities that adults do not? |
Early changes, like in the embryo stage, have more profound
effects and show up more rarely.
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Embryos often are adapted to more similar environments (like eggs, or seeds)
than the adults are in. |
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.
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1. What are four basic features that all living things are supposed to have? |
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Internally organized |
One or more cells
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Transform & use energy (have metabolism) |
Interact with the environment
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Reproduce |
Use DNA as a genetic code |
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Grow and develop |
As groups, can evolve |
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2.
Give the following for asexual reproduction - |
| BASIC DEFINITION
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Produces offspring
that are genetically identical (but maybe not physically identical) to parent. |
ADVANTAGE
compared to sexual |
Is actual
reproduction - makes another of the same individual. |
DISADVANTAGE
compared to sexual |
Offspring have
little variation, are all equally vulnerable. |
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3. Name four of the Six "Basic" Kingdoms, and for each list enough traits to make
it clearly different from the other five. |
Monera
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Prokaryotes, more
common and more in "regular" environments. |
Archaea
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Prokaryotes, less
common and more in "extreme" environments. |
Protista
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Eukaryotes,
single-celled or with many almost-the-same cells. |
Plantae
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(Eukaryotes)
Multi-celled, photosynthetic.
(NOTE: There are
photosynthesizers in 4 of the 6 Kingdoms, but the rest are single-celled) |
Animalia
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(Eukaryotes)
Multi-celled, usually can move, absorb nutrients from inner chambers. |
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Fungi |
(Eukaryotes)
Multi-celled, usually made up of fiber (hyphae), absorb nutrients across outside
surfaces.
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4.
When biologists are trying to decide whether viruses are truly alive, these are
important: |
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Two traits viruses
have IN COMMON
with all living things. |
Use DNA as code (usually).
Can reproduce. |
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Groups can evolve. |
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Two traits all living
things should have
that all viruses do not. |
Don't have any
metabolism except when using a host's. |
Do not grow or develop.
Don't really interact with the environment (react to contact with new host, and
that's it). |
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5. Give two different rules that apply to each in binomial nomenclature: |
FIRST
WORD |
Always the genus that the species is in. |
Always capitalized. |
SECOND
WORD |
Means nothing by itself. |
Never
capitalized. |
ENTIRE
NAME |
Treated as foreign word - underlined or
italicized.
Always 2 words. |
Abbreviated with genus' initial and second word spelled out. |
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6. Answer the following about classic Scientific Method: |
Two features a good
hypothesis should have |
Can be used to make predictions. |
Is
testable. |
Role served by the
experimental variable |
It's the thing that's actually being tested. |
Purpose of the
control test |
Gives a comparison - what are the results
without the variable, or with the variable altered in a known way? |
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7. What are four features that science in general (NOT specifically just scientific
method) should have? |
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Deals only with testable ideas. |
Should be based on accepted principles of logic. |
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No idea can be completely disproven, but all
ideas should be disprovable. |
Accepted explanations should be modified or discarded as conflicting evidence is
found. |
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.
For 2 Points each, what general types of organisms are often decomposers?
What was thought to be the confounding factor in Redi's first experimental set-up? Three
Points.
Give one reason why intelligent design is not thought to be science. Three Points.
What is usually done with qualitative data in science? Three Points.
What did Haeckel do wrong? Three Points.
What other area has strongly adopted aspects of postmodernism? Three Points.
What used to be the common language of science? Three Points.
What was Linnaeus' field of study, other than classification? Three Points.
Give an example of convergence. Three Points.
What forms does nuclear radiation take? Two Points each.
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