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Study Questions for Science 1101 |
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Study Questions will be posted approximately one-week before each exam.
Exam #1:
How is the nervous system organized in terms of sensory, integrator, and motor neurons? How are signals transmitted along (within) neurons (is an impulse traveling from one end of a neuron to the other information or a molecule)? Is the information that reaches the brain from a single neuron simple or complex? How are signals transmitted between nerve cells? How is information from several sources integrated to result in a decision that causes a given behavior (i.e. explain why the same stimulus may not elicit the same response the second time)? Do different senses detect different types of energy? If all information is transmitted the same way to the brain, then why do we perceive senses so differently? (e.g. why do you perceive light when you rub your eyes)? Overall, is information from the environment disassembled and re-assembled by the nervous system?
In general, what does
the complexity of the universe and the limits of the human mind suggest
about our present understanding of nature?
Overview of the
scientific process
Know the basic scientific
method. Understand and be able to identify types of variables (you are
not responsible for knowing any particulars from lab, but your work in
lab will help you understand types of variables). What is an assumption?
How could the interpretation of an experimental outcome be affected if
1) a variable is not controlled, 2) an experiment is not replicated, 3)
alternative hypothesis were not considered, 4) the dependent variable was
not measured accurately?
Do all experiments require the independent variable to be manipulated directly? What is the advantage of direct manipulation experiments? What is the advantage of observational experiments?
Why do we need replicates in an experiment. What is the purpose of doing a statistical analysis? What exactly does the P-value tell you and at what level of P is something consider significant?
Why is it preferable
in science to talk about "levels of confidence" rather than "proofs"? Why
has science been useful and successful despite limitations of any single
scientific study? What is a theory and why might a theory be accepted
and considered 'good'? What is needed before a previously accepted
theory is to be rejected?
The structure of
space and time
What is the heliocentric
model and the geocentric model? Why did the geocentric model ever come
about and was this model useful? Describe the motion of the sun, moon,
stars, and plants over several days as seen from earth. Which of these
motions greatly complicated the geocentric model. Name several qualities
that might make a new theory "better" than the old theory. Provide examples
of these qualities as human perception of heavenly bodies and gravity changed
from ancient times to modern; i.e. what did Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo,
Newton, and Einstein contribute to theory? Why were people reluctant to
abandon the geocentric model and why was it finally abandoned? Why did
Newton suspect that a force was acting on planets orbiting the sun? What
did Newton realize (and demonstrate mathematically) about gravity?
According to Einstein, will the speed of light always be the same, regardless
of the speed at which the observer is measuring it? What common sense experiences
must we abandon to accept the special theory of relativity? Why is Einstein's
theory accepted?
The structure of
matter and the nature of energy
How do alchemy and
modern chemistry differ in their general approach to studying matter? How
do we know what matter is made up (i.e. that fire is not matter, gases
are made up of matter, molecules are specific combinations of elements,
and atoms are made up of smaller particles)? What is meant by the conservation
of matter? What is determined by the number of protons, number of neutrons,
and the number of electrons? Why do scientist think our sun is a
second generation star and we are made of star dust?
Know the equation for cellular respiration and be able to explain how it is related to the your digestive, respiratory, and circulator systems. Where does cellular respiration occur in your body and why is it important (don't just say you'd die without it; what do you get out of it)? Which gas is needed by cells of the body? Which gas is produced as a waste product of the body?
What are the pathways by which energy flows through ecosystems (i.e. what is meant by trophic level and to which and from which trophic levels does energy flow) ? What is chemosynthesis. What are autotrophs and heterotrophs? Why isn't energy just recycled in organisms, ecosystems, and human society? What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics? How can it be explained on a molecular level? What is the fate of energy in ecosystems and how does that effect the number of trophic levels. How is human civilization dependent on ecological energy transformations? How does matter differ from energy in the way that it moves through ecosystems? What are the pathways by which carbon dioxide is produced in the carbon cycle and how have the rates of carbon dioxide production changed since the industrial revolution?
What is meant by the classic view of nature as mechanistic, deterministic, and continuous. How does the quantum mechanic view differ from the classical view? Provide an example of quantum "weirdness". What does quantum mechanics tell us about relying on common sense and everyday experience when attempting to comprehend nature? Are particles such as protons made up of even smaller particles? Can the smallest scale structure of matter be related to the largest scale structure of the universe?
Examination of present-day
controversies
What must a scientist
do to have the conclusions of his or her research become accepted in the
scientific community? How is it decided whether a paper in scientific
journal is published. What does this mean (in terms of acceptance of the
idea in the general scientific community) if it is published? What motivates
scientists? What types of criteria make the scientific merits of an idea
more credible and what types make it more suspect?
The extinction of
the dinosaur
What types of evidence
are there for meteor/asteroid/comet impact causing extinction of the dinosaur?
What types of evidence are there for volcanic activity causing extinction
of the dinosaur? What type of data is being analyzed to distinguish between
these hypotheses? What is the basis for the fact that most paleontologist
are leaning toward the impact hypothesis? Are hypotheses always mutually
exclusive (i.e. can there be multiple causes that explain a phenomenon)?
Life on Mars
What types of evidence
are there for life on Mars? What types of evidence do not support evidence
of life on Mars? Why is this controversy far from being resolved?
Why do other claims of extraterrestrial life (e.g. visits by UFOs) have
less 'scientific merit'?
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS:
What are two major
questions of environmental science and how are these questions related
to each other? What is a "system"? If ultimately everything
has some connection to everything else, why is it useful for us to define
a given system. Name and describe two characteristics of systems
in general. Define positive and negative feedbacks. In terms
of explaining complex systems, how does the recent science of "chaos and
complexity" differ from the view traditionally used by science? For a given
system, are both ideas mutually exclusive? What is meant by
the "butterfly effect"?
Exam #3:
What three aspects of the earth's rotation affect climate? What other factors effect climate? What kinds of evidence do climatologists use to reconstruct past changes in the earth's climate?
Explain the greenhouse effect. What type of gases increase this effect? How has human activity affected the release and uptake of carbon dioxide? Is there evidence that carbon dioxide levels have changed? What types of evidence indicate that global temperatures have increased in modern times. Is there any evidence that suggest temperatures haven't increased? Describe negative and positive feedbacks that effect global temperature change. Are atmospheric scientist absolutely certain that human activities have increased global temperatures? Is the level of scientific confidence the only factor considered when making societal decisions to address global warming?
BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS:
How are biological systems different than
physical systems? How do the examples of the human subsystems discussed
in class support this answer? How does the immune system detect and respond
to disease, and what happens if the immune system is weak in this ability
versus too efficient?
Why are biological systems different than physical systems? Define evolution and natural selection. Why don't physical systems undergo natural selection? What determines the direction of natural selection (i.e. what determines whether a trait is adaptive)? Does the number of genes an individual passes on to the next generation depend on survival or reproduction or both? Is the theory of evolution generally accepted within scientific community (why or why not?).
ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS:
Are ecological systems coordinated toward
a single set of outcomes? Define population, community, and ecosystem.
What are the three ways organisms can be distributed spatially and what
can each type of distribution tell you about factors affecting that population?
What is the relationship between population growth and birth and death
rates? Under what conditions will populations grow exponentially? Why will
population growth eventually slow? As limits to population size are reached,
what can happen to population size over time. How has the global human
population grown and what will future growth depend on? What are
the types of interactions between populations? How can competitors coexist?
How can predators and prey coexist? How can the predator-prey interactions
influence the outcome of competition (e.g. starfish in the intertidal)?
Why do some species, when moved to a different ecosystem, become much more
common than they were in their original ecosystem? What is a keystone species?
Are all species keystone species?