MES 1: Introduction to Environmental Science

Question 0

Name three consequences of large ecological footprints.

Answer 0

• Excess waste and pollution of air, water, and soil
• Depletion of natural resources
• Habitat loss and ecosystem degradation

Question 1

Name three causes of large ecological footprints.

Answer 1

• Rising per-capita affluence
• Cultural influences that encourage consumption
• Strong demand for material goods

Question 2

Name four solutions to large ecological footprints.

Answer 2

• Improved efficiency of manufacturing processes
• Adoption of cultural changes to reduce desire for consumption
• Sustainable harvest of resources
• Enhanced technologies to reduce impacts of goods and activities

Question 3

Water purification, nutrient cycling, and plant pollination are all examples of what?

Answer 3

Earth’s ecosystem services

Question 4

What is the study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment?

Answer 4

Environmental science

Question 5

Wave energy is an example of what?

Answer 5

A renewable resource

Question 6

Name three non renewable resources.

Answer 6

• Coal
• Thermogenic natural gas
• Crude oil

Question 7

What renewable resource can be depleted if it is overused?

Answer 7

Water

Question 8

Name three renewable resources.

Answer 8

• Wave energy
• Sunlight
• Wind

Question 9

What expresses environmental impact in terms of the cumulative area of land and water required to provide the resources a person consumes?

Answer 9

An ecological footprint

Question 10

Fossil fuels are an example of what?

Answer 10

Non renewable resources

Question 11

How should we describe the environment?

Answer 11

All the living things and nonliving things around us

Question 12

What is a testable statement that attempts to answer a scientific question?

Answer 12

A hypothesis

Question 13

What is performed to test the validity of a hypothesis?

Answer 13

An experiment

Question 14

What is a condition in an experiment that is susceptible to change?

Answer 14

A variable

Question 15

What do we call the variable that a scientist manipulates in an experiment?

Answer 15

The independent variable

Question 16

What do we call the variable that a scientist measures in an experiment?

Answer 16

The dependent variable

Question 17

What is an unmanipulated point of comparison for treatments in an experiment?

Answer 17

A control

Question 18

What is information obtained from scientific studies?

Answer 18

Data

Question 19

Scientific inquiry requires what type of approach to resolve a question?

Answer 19

Stepwise

Question 20

What is something that is widely accepted, and has been extensively validated by a great amount of research?

Answer 20

A theory

Question 21

In scientific research, the strongest form of research comes from what?

Answer 21

Experimentation

Question 22

What does it mean when an experiment fails to disprove a hypothesis?

Answer 22

The experiment lends support to the hypothesis but does not prove it is correct.

Question 23

If a scientist travels to the rain forest to observe and catalog new species, he or she would be conducting what type of science?

Answer 23

Descriptive science

Question 24

If a scientist makes an observation and eventually carries out an experiment to explain that observation, he or she is conducting what type of science?

Answer 24

Hypothesis-driven science

Question 25

When scientists conduct an experiment, what term describes the variable that researchers intentionally change, or manipulate, to see its effects on other variables?

Answer 25

Independent variable