SC 135 - First Exam Fall 2010
Answer Key

Links connect to relevant parts 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.  In living systems, respiration

___C___     a. Always uses oxygen            b. Requires a breathing system            c. Moves energy from molecule to molecule
                 d. All of these                                                        e. Is nice

                    ...it's a basic process that only sometimes uses oxygen.
 


                2.  Which would contain all of the others?

___A____     a. Ecosystem         b. Population         c. Individual        d. Community         e. Giant containy thing

                    ...individuals in populations in communities in ecosystems.
 


                3.  What is "ticking" in a molecular clock?

___D___     a. Attached sugars             b. Protein changes             c. Electrons             d. Point mutations
                                    e. Is that what I hear? I thought it was my brain cells dying.

                    ...changes in particular spots on DNA molecules that accumulate over time at a sort-of regular rate.
 


                4.  Which once-accepted concept has been largely discredited, shown to be wrong?

___B___     a. Viruses are bacteria             b. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny            c. Placebo effect
                 d. Triple-blind testing                                             e. Biology is fun

                    ...we don't actually relive our evolutionary history as embryos.
 


                5.  Which progression is right?

___C___     a. Organs contain cells which contain tissues                        b. Tissues contain organs which contain cells
                  c. Organs contain tissues which contain cells                        d. Cells contain tissues which contain organs
                                                                                e. Dizzy...so dizzy...

                    ...smaller in bigger, simpler in more complex.
 


                6.  In a colony of single-celled organisms,

___D___     a. The cells all look and act the same                            b. At least 2 different species are always present
                  c. It becomes one huge cell                                          d. Cells specialize on different jobs
                                        e. They often declare independence and carry tiny new flags

                    ...it's part of the definition of a colony.
 


                7.  Which actually starts as quantitative data?

___A___     a. How many flies have crooked wings?            b. How bad is the headache?            c. How fast is the stream flowing?
                 d. How hairy are the mice?                                                           e. How crazy is this driving me?

                    ...Each can be represented with numbers, but only one thing actually starts as numbers.
 


                8.  Which basically says, "Your idea is wrong"?

___C___     a. Non-predictive         b. False result         c. Null hypothesis        d. Negative analogy         e. Annoying voices in your head

                    ...it's always a possible result when you test an idea.
 


                9.  The current way to determine species is based on -

___A___     a. Behavior in nature                 b. Ability to make offspring                 c. Description                 d. If offspring can make offspring
                                                                                    e. Poking it with a sharp stick

                    ...the best judge of who belongs in a group is the group in their natural habitat.
 

                10. Organisms with similar analogy but different homology follow

___D___     a. Analytic classification         b. Systematic classification        c. Divergent evolution         d. Convergent evolution
                                                        e. The Twitter accounts of their favorite singers

                    ...they do the same thing using different structures.
 


                11. What is a common way to keep chance from having a major effect on experimental results?

___B___     a. Using trusted statistics on results             b. Using many specimens            c. Peer review             d. Using models
                                                                                        e. When in doubt, flip a coin

                    ...the bigger the study, the less impact a rare chance happening will have on it.
 


                12. In which example is ethics acting as a confounding factor?

___B___     a. Making mice sick rather than people                                            b. Not using medical results from Nazi concentration camp experiments
                 c. Avoiding a type of statistical approach that some might misuse       d. You're not allowed to name species after yourself
                                                    e. Punching the other scientists may be fun, but it's frowned upon

                    ...where is it actually affecting the design (and possibly the results) of an experiment?
 


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.  Where does a newly-dead animal need to quickly wind up to have the best chance of eventually becoming a fossil?
       ...on the bottom of a body of water, buried in sediments, by far the most common way that fossils get formed.
2.  In any food chain, what eventually happens to the -
MATERIALS?  It gets recycled ENERGY?  It gets lost as heat
3.  Put the following groups in order from the largest to the smallest: Class, Family, Genus, Kingdom, Order, Phylum, Species, Subclass, Superorder.
 
1   Kingdom 4   Subclass 7   Family
2   Phylum 5   Superorder 8   Genus
3   Class 6   Order 9   Species
4.  For Francesco Redi's meat experiment -
The variable -   Meat isolated with cloth covering The control -  Uncovered meat
5.  It's considered wrong in science to say something has been proved. Why?
       ...It assumes that your explanation is the only one possible.  You can gather evidence, but never be absolutely sure someone won't have a better explanation.
6.  What exactly is DNA doing that affects the chemistry of a cell?
       ...it's coding for the enzymes that all of the chemistry depends upon.
7.  What are the two most common (different) forms of experimental models?
Animals (models for people) Computer simulations
8.  Two different ways to make indirect observations, in general:
Use other people's observations Use devices to detect things your own senses can't
9.  What exactly is the placebo effect?
       ...in treatment tests, the act of treating people can all by itself produce improvement in them.
10.  In an experiment, what is an artifact?
       ...it's a result that the process itself produces, rather then the variable.
11. When is it necessary to do a field test?
       ...when what you need to test cannot be done under controlled lab conditions.
12.  The embryos of distantly-related organisms hold more similarities than the adults. Give one reason why this happens.
       ...very early changes are more likely to produce large changes later, so they can be more dangerous and less likely to take hold.

       ...the environments of early embryos tend to be similar, so they retain similarities.

13. What is meant by the metabolism of a system?
       ...all of the energy-moving chemistry in the system.
14. Put these in the proper ecosystem order: Consumers, Decomposers, Producers.
Producers Consumers Decomposers

 

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.  Give two different rules that apply to each in binomial nomenclature.
FIRST
WORD
SECOND
WORD
ENTIRE
NAME
Always capitalized Never capitalized Treated as foreign - underlined or italics
Is the Genus name Means nothing by itself Abbreviated with Genus initial and second word
2.  Give the following for sexual reproduction -
 
BASIC                   Offspring are genetic mixes from 2 sources
DEFINITION    (not necessarily 2 parents or using male & female)
ADVANTAGE               Produces more variation in offspring
compared to asexual
 
DISADVANTAGE      Can't actually reproduce the original
compared to asexual

 
3.  What are four features that science as a system should have (this is NOT looking for steps of the scientific method)?
Deals only with testable ideas Based on broadly-accepted rules of logic
Cannot prove, but can disprove Conclusions are always subject to being modified or discarded.
4.  What are three different things that can be compared based on homologies and used to determine biological relatedness?
 
Internal structures (including fossils)
Embryos Complex molecules
5.  For viruses -
2 Features they have that are also found in all living things - 2 Features all living things should have that viruses do NOT have -
Genetic System Not truly cellular
Reproduction Don't really interact with environment
Evolution No growth or development
6.  Name four of the Six "Basic" Kingdoms, and for each list enough traits to make it clearly different from the other five.
Plantae Multicelled, can do photosynthesis
Animalia Multicelled, absorb nutrients from inside spaces, usualy can move
Fungi Multicelled, made of hyphae (fibers), absorb nutrients across outer surfaces
Protista Eukaryotes, single-celled or very simple multicelled
Monera Prokaryotes, more widely found
Archaea Prokaryotes, found in more "extreme" environments
7.  Two different processes that take some energy from the environment and make chemical bond energy in fuel molecules - Type of environmental energy used by each named process -
Chemosynthesis Hot chemical energy
Photosynthesis Light

 

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, list the ways that a robot-building robot fits the features that make something "alive."




What sorts of basic jobs do animal tissues do? Two Points each, but there are only 5 animal tissue types.



In biological systems, what is ATP? Three Points.


In the past, when evolution has happened quickly, what was happening in the environment? Three Points.



What was "wrong" with Redi's first meat experiment? Three Points.


In general (not just in science), what was the concept of postmodernism about? Three Points.


What's the "extra" level in a triple-blind test? Three Points.


Linnaeus came up with terms for what non-classification-related organisms? Three Points


What original Kingdom soon was excluded? Three Points.


Which basic Kingdom was "promoted" last? Three Points.

 

 

 

 

 
     

Michael McDarby.

SCI 135

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