Life Science Online Resources Flashcards
Scientific reasoning
The scientific method (know the steps, in order, and know examples of each step)
scientific method include 1) defining the problem 2) making observations, 3) forming a hypothesis, 4) conducting an experiment and 5) drawing conclusions.
Understand why an experiment is repeated
Repeating an experiment more than once helps determine if the data was a fluke, or represents the normal case. It helps guard against jumping to conclusions without enough evidence. The number of repeats depends on many factors, including the spread of the data and the availability of resources.
Know the fundamentals of electronegativity
see TEAS recording on phone
Understand the various physical states of matter (gas, liquid, solid) and how a change in state might change pressure/volume/etc.
The change from solid to liquid usually does not significantly change the volume of a substance. However, the change from a liquid to a gas significantly increases the volume of a substance, by a factor of 1,000 or more.
Water in SOLID form – less dense
Water’s lower density in its solid form
THATS WHY ICE CUBES FLOAT IN WATER
Get a feel for the chemical properties of water, along with the specific values for it (such as specific heat/temp at which it freezes/boils/etc.)
water has a high specific heat capacity,
which is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius.
Water’s heat of vaporization is around 540 cal/g at 100 °C, water’s boiling point. As water molecules evaporate, the surface they evaporate from gets cooler, a process called evaporative cooling.
Under normal atmospheric pressure, freezes around 0C and boils at 100C. That’s around 32F and 212F.
Understand what happens during serial dilution and what values result from it (these are very easy)
The initial concentration and target range needed determines the size and number of dilution steps required. Serial dilutions are often performed in steps of 10 or 100. They are described as ratios of the initial and final concentrations. For example, a 1:10 dilution is a mixture of one part of a solution and nine parts fresh solvent. For a 1:100 dilution, one part of the solution is mixed with 99 parts new solvent.
Know the general concepts of natural selection and adaptation. Make sure you are able to distinguish between the two given an example.
The idea of natural selection is that traits that can be passed down allow organisms to adapt to the environment better than other organisms of the same species. This enables better survival and reproduction compared with other members of the species, leading to evolution.
Organisms can adapt to an environment in different ways. They can adapt biologically, meaning they alter body functions. An example of biological adaptation can be seen in the bodies of people living at high altitudes, such as Tibet.
Know all of the factors that influence birth/fertility rates. Be able to decipher if the population will increase or decrease given an example.
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understand population growth/decline based on rates of emigration immigration/birth/death.
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Know your biological classifications from general to specific: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum…etc. Watch these questions, paying attention to whether they are asking for more specific or more general in the order.
“King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti
kingdom
phylum
class
order
family
genus
species
Know as much as you can possibly learn about Nucleic Acids/DNA/RNA. Know their make up, how they bond, the nitrogenous bases and how they pair, which are unique to DNA or RNA, and which are shared by both DNA/RNA, know which are purines and which are pyrimidines.
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Know what it happening in all of different stages of translation and transcription. Know where it happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKIpDtJdK8Q
Know the parts of a cells in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes, and what those parts do. Know if they produce anything or if they are involved in an immune response…etc.
Prokaryotes are always unicellular, while eukaryotes are often multi-celled organisms. Additionally, eukaryotic cells are more than 100 to 10,000 times larger than prokaryotic cells and are much more complex. The DNA in eukaryotes is stored within the nucleus, while DNA is stored in the cytoplasm of prokaryotes (no nucleus)
Understand the makeup of the cell wall in both plant and animal cells.
Plant cells have a rigid cell wall that surrounds the cell membrane. Animal cells do not have a cell wall. When looking under a microscope, the cell wall is an easy way to distinguish plant cells.
Always, always, always equate protein with amino acids (the building block of proteins)
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Understand what chloroplasts do and how they do it.
Plants are autotrophs; they produce energy from sunlight through the process of photosynthesis, for which they use cell organelles called chloroplasts. Animal cells do not have chloroplasts. In animal cells, energy is produced from food (glucose) via the process of cellular respiration. Cellular respiration occurs in mitochondria on animal cells, which are structurally somewhat analogous to chloroplasts, and also perform the function of producing energy. However, plant cells also contain mitochondria.
A chloroplast (/ˈklɔːrəˌplæst, -plɑːst/)[1][2] is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in the energy-storage molecules ATP and NADPH while freeing oxygen from water in the cells. The ATP and NADPH is then used to make organic molecules from carbon dioxide in a process known as the Calvin cycle. Chloroplasts carry out a number of other functions, including fatty acid synthesis, amino acid synthesis, and the immune response in plants. The number of chloroplasts per cell varies from one, in unicellular algae, up to 100 in plants like Arabidopsis and wheat.
Chromosomes, genes, and alleles…know what they are, how they relate to each other, and how they affect organisms.
see other slides
Cell differentiation - know what the meso/endo/ectoderm become.
consisting of the endoderm (inner layer), the ectoderm (outer layer), and the mesoderm (middle layer).
endoderm gives rise to digestive system, pancreas, liver,
mesoderm gives rise to circulatory system, lungs, skeletal system, muscular system
ectoderm gives rise to hair, nails, skin, nervous system
Mitosis/Meiosis - understand all phases (ex: G1, S, G2…)of each and what is happening in each. (I found videos useful in this…especially those from Khan Academy) Know what types of cells these happen to.
ok see audio recording on phone “mitosis”
Review photosynthesis - review it again - then review it again. (the entire process) Know what it produces and how that product is used.
Photosynthesis
The flow of energy through living organisms begins with photosynthesis. This process stores energy from sunlight in the chemical bonds of glucose.
It changes light energy into chemical energy and also releases oxygen. Without photosynthesis, there would be no oxygen in the atmosphere. Photosynthesis involves many chemical reactions, but they can be summed up in a single chemical equation:
6CO2 + 6H2O + Light Energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2.
Photosynthetic autotrophs capture light energy from the sun and absorb carbon dioxide and water from their environment. Using the light energy, they combine the reactants to produce glucose and oxygen, which is a waste product. They store the glucose, usually as starch, and they release the oxygen into the atmosphere.
Be very familiar with cellular respiration, why it happens and what is happening.
Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are almost opposite processes. Looking at their equations, they differ only in the form of energy that is being absorbed or released. However, they are not simply the reversal of each other, as each one takes place in its own particular series of steps.
By breaking the chemical bonds in glucose, cells release the stored energy and make the ATP they need. The process in which glucose is broken down and ATP is made is called cellular respiration.
Cellular respiration actually “burns” glucose for energy. However, it doesn’t produce light or intense heat as some other types of burning do. This is because it releases the energy in glucose slowly, in many small steps. It uses the energy that is released to form molecules of ATP. Cellular respiration involves many chemical reactions, which can be summed up with this chemical equation:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Chemical Energy (in ATP)
Cellular respiration occurs in the cells of all living things. It takes place in the cells of both autotrophs and heterotrophs. All of them burn glucose to form ATP.
Mutation vs. adaption
A mutation is a random change to genetic material.
Mutations may be neutral, confer an advantage or a disadvantage.
Mutations are spontaneous and are the only source of new alleles.
Environmental factors, such as radiation and chemicals, can increase rate of mutation.
Variation within a population makes it possible for a population to evolve over time in response to changing environmental conditions.
Natural selection/survival of the fittest occurs when more offspring are produced than the environment can sustain.
Only the best adapted individuals survive to reproduce, passing on the genes that confer the selective advantage.
Speciation occurs after a population becomes isolated and natural selection follows a different path due to different conditions/selection pressures.
