BIOLOGY MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW PACKET Name:__________________

1. What are the steps of the scientific method? List and describe each step in order.

2. Define the following: experiment, controlled experiment hypothesis, analysis,

conclusion, variable, independent variable, dependent variable, control, constants.

3. What is the benefit of performing a controlled experiment?

4. How is an independent variable different from a dependent variable? Be able to

identify the independent variable and the dependent variable in example experiments.

5. What is a quantitative observation? Give examples.

6. What is a qualitative observation? Give examples.

7. Why is it important to use a control group in an experiment?

8. What does the study of biology include?

9. Who was Redi? What was his experiment? What were the independent and

dependent variables in his experiment?

10. Who was Aristotle? What did he do?

11. Who was Spallanzani? What was his experiment? What were the independent and

dependent variables in his experiment?

12. Who was Pasteur? What was his experiment? What were the independent and

dependent variables in his experiment?

13. What does “spontaneous generation” mean? How was it proven or disproven?

14. What are the characteristics of life (what characteristics do all living things share)?

List and describe each characteristic.

15. What conditions are necessary for an individual organism to survive? What

conditions are necessary for a population of organisms to survive?

16. What does homeostasis mean? What happens to an organism if homeostasis is

disrupted?

17. What is the basic unit of life?

18. Define the term “evolution.”

19. What is the biosphere? What does the biosphere include?

20. In the metric system, what is the basic unit of length? Of mass? Of volume?

21. Know the different prefixes (kilo, milli, etc.) of the metric system and what those

prefixes stand for. Be able to convert from grams to kilograms, milligrams to grams, etc.

22. Know the different instruments used in a science lab, including graduated cylinders,

Erlenmeyer flasks, triple beam balances, Bunsen burners, test tubes, etc. What are those

instruments used for?

23. Know the parts of a compound microscope.

24. How does one properly make a wet mount slide? How should the coverslip be

lowered onto the microscope slide?

25. Know the proper safety procedures and rules for the science laboratory.

26. What is taxonomy?

27. Who was Linnaeus? What was his major contribution to the field of taxonomy?

28. What does binomial nomenclature mean?

29. Be able to identify the genus and species parts of a scientific name. Which comes

first? Are both capitalized? Is the entire name italicized?

30. What are the seven taxonomic categories? Which is the most inclusive? The least

inclusive? Be able to list the taxonomic categories in order from kingdom to species.

31. What is a species?

32. List all of the current kingdoms and be able to identify examples of life that falls

under each kingdom.

33. What is a eukaryote? What is a prokaryote? How do they differ? What are

examples of each?

34. What is a heterotroph? What is an autotroph? Provide examples of each.

35. What does “abiotic” mean? What are some abiotic factors in an ecosystem?

36. What does “biotic” mean? What are some biotic factors in an ecosystem?

37. What is a food chain? What is a food web? Be able to draw an example of a food

chain or food web.

38. Define the following: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, herbivores,

omnivore, carnivore predators, decomposer. Be able to identify examples of each. At

what trophic level in a food chain or web do you find those organisms? For instance,

what organisms do you find at the first trophic level? The second trophic level? The

third trophic level?

39. What is a biogeochemical cycle?

40. What happens during the water cycle?

41. What happens during the carbon cycle?

42. What happens during the nitrogen cycle?

43. What happens during the phosphorus cycle?

44. What is a limiting factor or limiting nutrient?

45. Define the following: population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere.

46. What is the ultimate source of energy for Earth’s living things?

47. How can human activities impact the water cycle? The carbon cycle? The nitrogen

cycle? The phosphorus cycle?

48. What is symbiosis?

49. What does mutualism mean? Give an example.

50. What does commensalism mean? Give an example.

51. What does parasitism mean? Give an example.

52. What is a predator-prey relationship? Give an example.

53. What is a biome? What two factors impact land biomes the most?

54. What is succession?

55. When succession begins, the first species to arrive are known as what?

56. Define the following: carrying capacity, logistic growth, exponential growth,

population density, emigration, immigration.

57. A J-shaped growth curve indicates what type of growth? A S-shaped growth curve

indicates what type of growth?

58. What is a renewable resource? A nonrenewable resource? Give examples of both.

59. What does biodiversity mean?

60. What is an endangered species? Give an example.

61. What is an invasive species? Give an example of an invasive species that is currently

threatening the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

62. What are carbohydrates? What are monosaccharides? What are polysaccharides?

63. What are proteins? What are amino acids?

64. What are lipids?

65. What are nucleic acids?

66. What are monomers and what are polymers? What are the monomers and polymers

for carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids?

67. What are the functions of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids?

68. What is the pH of a neutral solution? What is the pH of an acidic solution? What is

the pH of a basic solution?

69. What are enzymes? Why are they important? What types of things can affect

enzymatic activity (the rate of enzyme activity)?

70. What makes up an atom’s nucleus? What is found outside the nucleus of an atom?

71. Which element is found in organic compounds (that distinguishes it from inorganic

compounds)?

72. What is a covalent bond? What is an ionic bond?

73. What is DNA?

74. What is the most abundant compound in most living things?

75. How do enzymes affect reactions in living cells? What does the term “lock and key”

mean when related to the shape of an enzyme and how it fits with a substrate molecule?

76. Know the different cell organelles and their functions, including the nucleus,

mitochodria, ribosomes, cell membrane, endoplasmic reticulum, chloroplasts, Golgi

apparatus, vacuoles, cytoskeleton, and cell wall.

77. How do animal cells differ from plant cells?

78. What is diffusion? Does it require energy?

79. What is osmosis?

80. What is active transport? Does it require energy?

81. What is endocytosis?

82. What is phagocytosis?

83. What is exocytosis?

84. When energy is not used, how do substances tend to move across a cell membrane-

from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration or from areas of low

concentration to areas of high concentration?

85. What is the cell theory? What three things does it state? What invention was key to

the development of the cell theory?

86. Who was Anton van Leeuwenhoek?

87. What cell organelle contains chlorophyll?

88. What is required for photosynthesis to occur?

89. What are the products of photosynthesis?

90. What is cellular respiration?

91. What is needed for cellular respiration to occur?

92. What is ATP? What is ADP?

93. What is mitosis? What happens during mitosis? Explain each step in the process.