Principles of Biology

Principles of Biology : Quiz 2 Study Guide

We will take Quiz 2 on Wednesday, Sept. 3. I recommend that you answer these questions yourself or with classmates. This not a graded assignment, nothing is to be turned in. These questions are just to help you prepare for this quiz.
Reading: This quiz will cover the rest of the Science and Epistemology handout. I also reserve the right to ask you about things on this handout that we might have already had on quiz 1. What I mean by this, is questions 9-12 on the first study guide are still "in the game." In addition, this quiz will cover the concept of "levels of organization" and "biome" and the basic global circulation of air as presented in class. To prepare for this, please refer to the calendar page and notice the "Levels of Organization," "Biomes" and the "Earth Sun Relationships" links.

Questions to be answered.

1) What is "induction?" Explain and give an example.
2) What is "deduction?" Explain and give an example.
3) What is "reasoning by analogy?" Explain and give your own (not mine) example.
4) Do any of the above methods yield truth? For each one, describe how they can fail.
5) What are the levels of organization of life as presented in class and in the link on the calendar page. (PS, if the link doesn't work, you need to install Flash Player).
6) At which level do we go from "not alive" to "alive?" How can we explain this?
7) What is the difference between a "community" and a "population?"
8) What is the difference between a "population" and a "species?"
9) Notice that "species" and "biomes" are not in our list of organizational levels. Why not (would you guess?)
10) What is the most inclusive level of organization? How is it defined?
11) Explain how the earth rotates around it's own axis. Explain how the earth revolves around the sun.
12) What effect does the fact that the earth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.5 degrees off of perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. (! harder to say than to answer!)
13) What are the basic laws of air movement involving temperature and water content?
14) What are "global circulation cells?" (see diagram on web link).
15) How does the model (of global circulation) predict (and/or explains) the following:
    - a band of hot, wet weather around the equator.
    - a band of warm, dry weather around 30 degrees N and S latitude.
    - a band of cool, wet weather around 60 degrees N and S latitude.
    - a cold, dry region on both poles.
16) What is a "biome?" - See the Berkeley web link for the biome questions.
17) What does the global circulation model have to do with the biomes? (presented in class)
18) Name 5 or 6 important biome types, and briefly describe them (including plant and animal characteristics)

Questions to ponder.

19) Why is the "biome" concept sometimes consider to be not real useful? Hint: Can it be defined objectively? Are the biome boundaries distinct?
20) What is the value of the biome concept? (why did I bother to present it?)

Last Update : Aug. 28, 1:15 p.m.