Ecology
1. How would one determine whether something was living or nonliving?
2. Describe the two sources of energy that fuel life on Earth.
3. How does a food web differ from a food chain?
4. Describe the three types of ecological pyramids.
5. Describe the roles of bacteria in the nitrogen cycle.
6. How might a large input of phosphorus affect a freshwater lake over time?
7. Explain how ocean currents originate and affect Earth’s climates.
8. Describe the greenhouse effect and explain how it maintains Earth’s temperature range.
9. Name and define the three main classes of symbiotic relationships. Give examples of each.
10. What is a microclimate? Give an example.
11. Discuss four ways population size can change.
12. Differentiate between exponential and logistic growth.
13. Explain the limiting factors that control population growth.
14. Differentiate between density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors.
15. What are introduced species? How are they a threat to biodiversity?
Biochemistry, Cells, and Cellular Energy
1. Compare and contrast adhesion and cohesion, using capillary action as an example.
2. Compare enzyme activity to a lock and key.
3. What is the difference between inference and observation?
4. Can a theory change over time? Explain your answer.
5. Summarize three statements from the cell theory. Explain the significance of the cell theory to biology.
6. Compare the cell membrane to a mosaic.
7. How do facilitated diffusion and active transport differ?
8. Describe three main functions of a plant leaf.
9. Discuss the relationship between autotrophs and heterotrophs. Do heterotrophs depend on autotrophs for their survival? Explain your answer.
10. Compare the storage capacity of ATP and glucose. How does the cell use each of these molecules to store energy?
11. Describe how pigments obtain energy from light. Use chlorophyll as an example of the process you describe.
12. Identify three factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis, and explain the effect of each.
13. Trace the events that occur in the thylakoid membrane during the light-dependent reactions.
14. List the main events of glycolysis. How many ATP molecules are produced and consumed by glycolysis? What effect does the presence of oxygen have on the events that follow glycolysis?
15. Compare lactic acid fermentation with alcoholic fermentation. Where does each process occur? What are the products of each process?
Genetics
1. What kinds of problems does growth cause for cells? How does cell division help a cell solve these problems?
2. List and describe the main events of the cell cycle. Illustrate your description with a diagram of the cell cycle.
3. Describe what happens during the four phases of mitosis.
4. Describe how the skin cells near a cut behave. What role does contact with other cells have in the behavior of cells near a cut?
5. Describe how cancer cells are different from other cells. Based on these differences, explain why cancer has been such a difficult condition to cure.
6. You wish to determine whether a tall pea plant is homozygous or heterozygous for tallness. What cross should you perform to arrive at your answer? Explain your choice of cross.
7. Explain the difference between incomplete dominance and codominance.
8. The stages of meiosis are classified into two divisions: meiosis I and meiosis II. Compare and contrast these two divisions.
9. Describe the structure of a DNA molecule.
10. Contrast the functions of the three main types of RNA.
11. Mendel might have been surprised to learn that genes simply contain the instructions for assembling proteins. What do proteins have to do with the phenotype of an organism?
12. Why do some kinds of point mutations cause greater changes in proteins than others?
13. Contrast the techniques used in genetic engineering and in selective breeding to produce organisms with desired traits.
14. In what general ways are transgenic organisms useful to people today?
15. Explain why the father of a girl who is colorblind must also be colorblind.
