Biology Questions

1. What are the characteristics of a living organism?
2. How do you determine the TOTAL magnification of the field of view of a microscope?
3. What is homeostasis? How is homeostasis important to the survival of an organism? How is homeostasis maintained in a human?
4. What is the difference between diffusion and osmosis?
5. Define osmosis, hypertonic, hypotonic, isotonic solutions
6. What happens if you have a high concentration of salt water on the outside of the egg, yet there is very little salt inside the egg? What direction will the water move? Is this solution hypertonic, hypotonic, or isotonic?
7. What happens if you place another egg into a bowl of pure water? What direction will the water move? Is this solution hypertonic, hypotonic, or isotonic?
8. What cell part controls what enters and leaves a cell? What does semi-permeable mean?
9. Compare and contrast active and passive transport. List similarities and differences.
10. What are enzymes? What is their importance to organisms? Are they reusable? Are they specific?
11. Analyze the following bioenergetic reactions:

Aerobic respiration
Anaerobic respiration
Photosynthesis
Chemosynthesis
List the reactants

List the products

What organelle does this occur in? (if any)

What is the function of the process?

List an organism that uses this process to create energy.

When or where would this process occur?

12. What does the cell use the released energy for?
13. Diagram the steps of mitosis. Label the centrioles, chromosomes, chromatin, chromatids, nuclear membrane, centromere, spindle fibers.
14. What is the purpose of mitosis? What is the purpose of meiosis? Define homologous chromosomes, sister chromatids.
15. Fill in the following table:

Result is Haploid or diploid
Function of process
# of cells produced
List a type of organism who uses this process
Autosomes or gametes
Are the daughter cells identical or different from parents?
Meiosis

Mitosis

16. What is the Law of Segregation in terms of chromosomes?
17. What is the Law of Independent Assortment in terms of chromosomes? How does this increase variation in a species?
18. What element is required to be considered organic matter?
19. Explain the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.
20. What is the function of ATP?
21. What is the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic?
22. Fill in the following table:
Organelle
Function
Present in plant, animal, protist, bacteria, or fungi (list all possible)?
ER

Golgi

Vacuole

Nucleus

Cilia

Flagella

Cell wall

Cell membrane

Lysosome

Mitochondria

Ribosomes

23. Fill in the following table:

Nucleic acids
Carbohydrates
Proteins
Lipids
Function of each organic compound

Provide three examples.

Monomer of each macromolecule

24. What is the structure of DNA? What are the components?
25. What is crossing over in terms of chromosomes? How does crossing over affect the variation in DNA? When does it occur?
26. What are the types of chromosomal mutations? How does chromosomal mutations affect the variation in DNA? When does it occur?
27. What is non-disjunction? How does non-disjunction affect the variation in DNA? When does it occur?
28. Define: dominant, recessive, codominant, sex linked trait
29. What is DNA replication? What is the result? When does it occur in the cell cycle?
30. How does random assortment of chromosomes affect the final result from meiosis?
31. Define heredity, heterozygous, homozygous, allele
32. Fill in the following table.

What is the function of each of the following
Where are they found? mRNA tRNA

DNA

33. What is biotechnology?
34. Practice doing both monohybrid and dihybrid crosses and interpreting these crosses.
35. What is a test cross?
36. How has genetic technology helped in identification of individuals?
37. What is a pedigree?
38. What is a karyotype?
39. How is genetic engineering (bacterial transformation) helpful for humans?
40. What is the purpose of transcription and translation (what do you get in the end?)?
41. List the steps of transcription.
42. List the steps of translation.
43. Fill in the following table:
Scientist
Contribution or discovery
Scientist
Contribution or discovery
Watson & Crick

Pasteur

Darwin

Redi

Van Leeuwenhoek

Rosalind Franklin

Hooke

Schleiden

Linnaeus

Schwann

Mendel

44. Fill in the following table:

Asexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction
Advantages in terms of natural selection

Disadvantages in terms of natural selection

List a type of organism that uses this process.

45. What is the theory of spontaneous generation?
46. Why is variation important to the survival of a species? How does it affect natural selection and evolution?
47. What have we learned from the fossil record about the history of living things?
48. What is speciation?
49. What roles do variation and reproductive and geographic isolation play in speciation?
50. What is adaptive radiation?
51. What are the 6 types of evidence used to determine evolutionary relationships between species?
52. What do biochemical similarities tell us about the evolutionary relationship between living things?
53. What are vestigial structures and what do they tell us about past life? Provide 1 example.
54. What are homologous structures and what do they tell us about past life? Provide 1 example.
55. What are analogous structures and what do they tell us about past life? Provide 1 example.
56. What is camouflage? Provide 1 example.
57. What is mimicry? Provide 1 example.
58. Why is the current classification system continually undergoing change?
59. What are the currently accepted 6 kingdoms?
60. What are the three domains?
61. Make sure you can use a dichotomous key (such as the gremlins key).
62. Fill in the following table:

Bacteria
Protista
Fungi
Plantae
Animalia
Cell Type E=Eukaryote P=Prokaryote

E

Body Form M=Multicellular
U=Unicellular B=Both

M

Obtain food H=heterotrophic A=Autotrophic P=Photosynthetic

H
Presence of complex organ systems
No

63. Describe the unique characteristics of plants
64. Describe the unique characteristics of fungi.
65. Describe the unique characteristics of animals
66. Describe the unique characteristics of bacteria
67. Are viruses considered living? Why or why not?

68. What are some of the important abiotic factors that affect biomes and ecosystems?
69. Fill in the following table:

Example
Who benefits?
Who loses?
Predator/prey

Mutualism

Parasitism

Competition

70. What is the water cycle? Describe it briefly.
71. What is the nitrogen cycle? Describe it briefly.
72. What is the carbon cycle? Describe it briefly.
73. What are the differences between primary and secondary succession?
74. What is a climax community?
75. How is the evolution of behavioral adaptations related to survival of a species?