Diversity of Living Things

Question 1

What is Biology?

Answer 1

The study of living things and how they interact with other things around them

Question 2

Name 10 characteristics that define living things

Answer 2

1. Exhibit Movement
2. Respond to the environment
3. Undergo growth and development
4. Have a lifespan
5. Have a metabolism (obtain and use energy)
6. Adapt and evolve
7. Reproduce
8. Maintain a balance with the environment (homeostasis)
9. Contains hereditary material
10. Cellular organization

Question 3

What does it mean to respond to the environment? Give an example

Answer 3

If there’s a stimuli, the organism will produce a response
Light + eye reaction = example
Plants without water get wrinkled = example

Question 4

Give an example of undergoing growth and development

Answer 4

Lines in a tree (growth)
Bacteria (growth)

Question 5

What does it mean to have a lifespan?

Answer 5

Might live a long time, but are not infinite

Question 6

What does it mean to have a metabolism? How is it different for animals and plants?

Answer 6

Humans: Eat food, convert energy, perform energy
Plants: use photosynthesis to convert sunlight and water into glucose/energy, then perform energy by growing

Question 7

What is homeostasis?

Answer 7

Maintaining a balance with the environment
-Your body’s ability to bring itself back to “neutral”
(Think AC system)

Question 8

What does it mean to contain hereditary material?

Answer 8

DNA must be able to be passed on from parent to offspring

Question 9

What does it mean to have cellular organization?

Answer 9

Every cell has a blueprint, all functions happen in specific locations of the cell (not free fall or just floating around randomly)

Question 10

What is Taxonomy?

Answer 10

Categorize living things into groups / categories called taxa

Question 11

What are the different taxonomic levels?

Answer 11

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

Question 12

What is the purpose of different taxonomic levels?

Answer 12

It’s a hierarchical classification system. Each level becomes more and more specific, narrowing down what group the living thing is categorized in.

Question 13

How many domains are there? What are they?

Answer 13

3: Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryota

Question 14

How many kingdoms? What are they?

Answer 14

6: Plantae, Eubacteria, Protist, Fungi, Archaea, Animalia

Question 15

What is Binomial Nomenclature? List the rules

Answer 15

A system that identifies organisms using only the genus and species
- Genus is always capitalized and underlined or italicized
- Species is always lower case and underlined or italicized

Question 16

What are Dichotomous Keys?

Answer 16

Classify different organisms into groups by asking questions
A series of questions with only 2 answers, goal is to “narrow it down”