Test 1 Flashcards
What are the 7 characteristics of life?
Growth
Energy Utilization
Cells
Homeostasis
Ordered Complexity
Evolutionary adaptation
Sensitivity to stimuli
OR G.E.C.H.O.E.S.
What are some problems with the 7 characteristics of life?
What if an organism doesn’t fit into all of the characteristics? (like viruses)
What are the levels of organization?
Cells
Organs and organ systems
Organisms
Populations
Communities
Ecosystems
(CELLS ARE THE SMALLEST UNIT OF LIFE)
What are emergent properties?
New properties emerge when units of biological material are put together. These properties cannot be deduced by looking at the parts themselves. (An example is life. You wouldn’t call the organs themselves alive but put together makes a complex human being.)
What is Inductive Reasoning?
Using related observation to arrive at a general conclusion (Bottom-up)
What is Deductive Reasoning?
Using a general principle or law to forecast specific results (Top-DOWN)
Does scientific inquiry use Inductive or Deductive Reasoning?
Inductive reasoning
What are the 6 steps in the scientific method?
Observation
Question
Hypothesis
Prediction
Experiment
Results
What are independent variables?
This is the condition that the researcher is changing.
What are dependent variables?
The variable being measured and reported. The dependent variable depends on the independent variable.
What is a control variable?
The variable that is not being changed between groups. (Not the same as the control group)
What is Qualitative data?
Observed data or descriptions that cannot be measured (e.g. color, smell, beauty)
What is Quantitative data?
Numbers that can be measured (e.g. Length, height, time)
What does theory mean in science?
a theory is the strongest explanation for a phenomenon; it is backed by an enormous amount of data and research.
What are the unifying themes in biology?
Cellular Structure and Function
Reproduction
Metabolism
Homeostasis
Heredity
Evolution
Interdependence
(CHHIMER)
Disprove the misconception: “If humans descended from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?”
Evolution teaches that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor.
Disprove the misconception: “Evolution is just a theory”
There is an insurmountable amount of evidence and data supporting the idea of evolution. Remember, to be considered a theory in science, you need years and years of data from across multiple disciplines backing an idea up.
Disprove the misconception: “Individuals evolve”
Populations evolve not individuals
Disprove the misconception: “Evolution explains the origin of life”
Evolution does not explain the source of life, it explains what happens once life was here, the first evidence we have is about 3.5 billion years ago with single celled organisms.
Disprove the misconception: “Organisms evolved on purpose”
evolution is not a being with a mind, there is no purpose. We just see that traits are selected for, or not, in individuals and as individuals change these groups, populations and species change.
What is evolution?
Change over time of a population of a species
What is macroevolution?
rise of new species (from old) and higher taxonomic groups with widely divergent characters (speciation)
What is microevolution?
Changes within a population in heritable characteristics/allele/gene frequency that can be observed over short periods of time (In microevolution, there’s a change within a population)
What is Charles Darwin known for?
-Said that life on earth could be descended from a common ancestor
-a naturalist, hypothesized that species change over the course of many generations by adapting to new environments
What is Alfred Russell Wallace known for?
A British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist, and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection.
What is Jean Baptiste-Lamarck known for?
Best known for his incorrect notion called “inheritance of acquired characteristics”
True/False: Evolution results in progress; organisms are always getting better through evolution.
False, Evolution doesn’t always make an organism better. (survivorship bias)
True/False: Evolution only occurs slowly and gradually.
False, Changes in an ecosystem/environment can happen very quickly. (Punctuated equilibrium)
What are the mechanisms of evolution?
Mutation
Natural selection
Gene flow (migration)
Genetic drift (random)
Recombination
Non-Random Mating
(MaNaGGeRR)
What is Mutation?
-a rare change in DNA
-the ultimate source of new alleles, or new genetic variation in any population
What is point mutation?
a point in DNA (A, T, C, or G) changes and binds to something it normally doesn’t bind to. (E.g. sickle cell anemia)
What is the raw material for selection?
genetic variation
What was Lamarck’s incorrect view of natural selection?
Behavior leads to changes that are passed on. (e.g. giraffes reach higher and higher for leaves so their neck grows)
Natural Selection acts on the ______.
Evolution acts on the _________.
individual, population
What is Gene Flow?
The flow of alleles in and out of a population due to the migration of individuals or gametes. (can occur when an individual travels from one geographic location to another)
What is Genetic Drift?
allele frequencies within a population change randomly which can reduce genetic variation in small populations