Name:______Aim:______Date:______

Aim#1: Scientific Method and Life Processes

  1. What is science?
  1. Why is this course called “The Living Environment?”
  1. What is Scientific Inquiry?

*How do you know whether to believe headlines or not?

*How do you know when to trust claims in advertisements, on tv, on the internet, in newspapers, or in a magazine?

* What makes something science-based?

  1. Ask a question:
  2. Observations vs. Inferences:
  1. Qualitative Observations:
  1. Quantitative Observations:

Experimental Questions must be testable!

* Determine whether the statements below are observations or inferences:

For each picture below, list four observations and two inferences.

Observations:

Inferences:

Observations:

Inferences:

  1. Form a Hypothesis and Collect Data:
  2. Evidence:
  1. Hypothesis:
  1. How is a hypothesis similar to a guess? How is a hypothesis different than a guess?
  1. Controlled Experiments:
  1. Control Group vs. Experimental Group:
  1. Independent (manipulated) variable vs. Dependent (responding) variable:
  1. Constants (controlled variables):
  1. Sample Size:
  1. Does a small sample size or a large sample size give better results?

Look at each of the hypotheses below. Identify the independent and dependent variables. Give a brief description of how you would test each.

  1. If we add salt to soil, then plants will grow more leaves.
  2. If we change the color of light, then a plant will grow taller.
  3. If we increase the temperature, then bacterial growth will increase.
  4. If plants are exposed to low temperatures, then there will be changes in leaf color.
  5. If people are exposed to a high amount of UV light, then there will be a higher frequency of skin cancer.

Base your answers to the following questions on the information below and on your knowledge of Biology.

Louis Pasteur was a famous French scientist in the late 19th Century. He helped prove that most infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms. This was known as the Germ Theory of Disease. He is particularly renowned for his discovery of a process named after him. This process is called pasteurization and is still used today. Pasteurization is a heating process that kills germs that normally spoil milk and wine. Milk and wine are heated to a specific temperature for a specified period of time. This process kills these germs.

Pasteur conducted experiments where he compared the shelf-life of wine that wasn’t heated to wine that was heated. The table below illustrates the results.

Unheated Heated

Wine / # of Days until Spoilage
Wine A / 4
Wine B / 6
Wine C / 4
Wine / # of Days until Spoilage
Wine A / 10
Wine B / 20
Wine C / 12
  1. What was the problem?
  1. What was observed?
  1. What did Pasteur research? (Hint: Think of Movie Clip)
  1. What was the hypothesis?
  1. Explain his experiment.
  1. What were his results from the experiment?
  1. What conclusion can be made?

Base your answers to the following questions on the information below and on your knowledge of Biology.

From

The Strange Case of BeriBeri

In 1887 a strange nerve disease attacked the people in the Dutch East Indies. The disease was beriberi. Symptoms of the disease included weakness and loss of appetite, victims often died of heart failure. Scientists thought the disease might be caused by bacteria. They injected chickens with bacteria from the blood of patients with beriberi. The injected chickens became sick. However, so did a group of chickens that were not injected with bacteria.

One of the scientists, Dr. Eijkman, noticed something. Before the experiment, all the chickens had eaten whole-grain rice, but during the experiment, the chickens were fed polished rice. Dr. Eijkman researched this interesting case and found that polished rice lacked thiamine, a vitamin necessary for good health.

  1. State the problem.
  1. What was the hypothesis?
  1. How was the hypothesis tested?
  1. Should the hypothesis be supported or rejected based on the experiment?
  1. What should be the new hypothesis and how would you test it?

Suppose you work for Blabbit Labs, thedeveloper of many different pharmaceuticalproducts. Your research division has stumbledacross a new drug that you believe cures malepattern baldness. Before you can start selling the drug, you must demonstrate to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the drug is effective.

  1. What is the question/problem being asked?
  1. Form a hypothesis for your experiment.

You design an experiment with 500 men who have been diagnosed with male pattern baldness. They are divided up into two groups, group A (men receiving the drug) and group B (men receiving a placebo).

  1. Control Group-
  2. Experimental Group-
  3. Independent Variable-
  4. Dependent Variable-
  5. Constants (3)-
  1. Analyze Data and Report Conclusions
  1. What do scientists do during experiments?
  1. What is data?

Independent Variable / Dependent Variable
  1. How do we organize data?
  2. Data Tables:
  1. Graphing:
  2. Why do scientists utilize graphs?
  1. Label the following types of graphs and describe which type of data you would organize in each:

Technique for Constructing a Line Graph

  1. Identify the variables to be plotted
  • Independent variable

the variable manipulated by the experimenter

is plotted on the x-axis (horizontal axis)

  • Dependent variable

the factor responding to changes in the independent variable

plotted on the y-axis (vertical axis)

  1. Determine the scale of the axes

Determine each axis individually

May easily be determined by taking the largest value to be plotted and dividing by the number of blocks and then rounding up to the nearest convenient number

The graph should be spread to occupy the most available space.

  1. Number and label each axis indicating the appropriate units.
  2. Plot each data value on the graph with a point.
  3. Draw a line that best fits the data points.

Do not connect data points to the origin unless there is data to support this

Only connect the points if the directions tell you to do so.

  1. Provide a title which clearly indicates what the graph is about.
  2. If the graph has more than one set of data, provide a key to indicate what is represented by the different lines.
  1. Identifying Patterns and Trends in graphs:

Graphing Practice

Base your answers to the following questions on the information below and on your knowledge of Biology.

Data Table
Temperature (°C) / Heart Rate (beats/min)

A student performed a laboratory investigation to determine the effect of temperature o the heart rate of Daphnia (water flea). The following temperatures and heart rates were recorded:

  • 20°C - 270 beats/min
  • 15°C - 180 beats/min
  • 5°C - 108 beats/min
  • 10°C – 150 beats/min
  • 25°C- 300 beats/min
  1. Organize the data by filling in the data table below. Complete both columns in the data table so that the temperature either increases or decreases from the top to the bottom of the table.

  1. Mark an appropriate scale on each

labeled axis. USE PENCIL!

  1. Plot the data from your data table.

Surround each point with a small circle

and connect the points. USE PENCIL!!

Interpreting a line graph

The following graph shows how the size of bacteria population changed over an eight-hour period.

Using the Growth of Bacterial Population graph, answer the following questions:

  1. What does the scale on the x-axis represent?

______

  1. What quantity does one unit on the horizontal scale equal?

______

  1. What does the scale on the Y-axis measure?

______

  1. What quantity does one unit on the vertical scale equal?

______

  1. What can you learn from the graph?

______

______

  1. How large was the bacteria population at the end of the fifth hour?

______

  1. At what point were there 3 million bacteria per milliliter?

______

Scientific Literacy:

  1. What is meant by the term scientific literacy? Why is it important for us to be scientifically literate?
  1. Suppose you see a commercial for a weight loss pill that claims you will lose weight if you use it. Before rushing out to buy this product, what are some things you should think about?
  1. Where would you find some answers to these questions?
  1. How do you know whether you can trust the information from a research study?
  1. What is a Theory?
  1. What is a Scientific Law?
  1. Are scientific theories permanent or are they

subject to change? Explain.

  1. Science in Everyday Life:
  2. Ethics:
  1. What are some ethical issues in science today?

Applying Concepts: Ethical issues

A study shows that a new pesticide is safe for use on food crops. The researcher who conducted the study works for the pesticide company. What potential biases may have affected the study?

______

Regents Practice Questions

  1. Base your answer to the following question on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.

You are the head of the research division of the Leafy Lettuce Company. Your company is experimenting with growing lettuce using hydroponic technology. Hydroponic technology involves growing plants in containers of growth solution in a greenhouse. No soil is used. The growth solution that the company uses contains water, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The company wants to know if adding iron to this formula will improve lettuce growth.

Briefly describe how to test the effect of the formula with iron added. In your description be sure to:

  • State a hypothesis to be tested in the new experiment.
  • State how the control group will be treated differently from the experimental group.
  • Identify two factors that must be kept the same in both the experimental and control groups.
  • State what type of data should be collected to support or refute the hypothesis.

______

  1. A television advertisement claims that a certain brand of cough drop reduces coughing for 8 hours. Describe an investigation that could be used to determine if this claim is valid. In your answer, include a description of:
  • The treatment to be given to the experimental group.
  • The treatment to be given to the control group.
  • The data to be collected
  • When the data should be collected
  • One observation that would lead to the conclusion that the claim is valid.

______

  1. Many people who are in favor of alternative medicine claim that large doses of vitamin C introduced into a vein speed up the healing of surgical wounds. Describe an experiment to test this hypothesis. Your answer must include at least:
  • The difference between the experimental group of subjects and the control group.
  • Two conditions that must be kept constant in both groups.
  • Data that should be collected
  • An example of experimental results that would support the hypothesis.

______

Measurement in the Laboratory

The most common system of measurement used by scientists is the ______. This system is based on multiples of ______. Distance (length) is measured in units called ______(m); mass is measured in ______(______); and volume is measured in ______(______). Temperature is measured in ______(______).

What is the advantage of using one measurement system in science?

Metric Prefixes & Conversions

Prefixes are words that are used with the basic units of the metric system. Prefixes are placed in front of the unit to show how large or small the unit is.

What is an easy way of remembering the order of the metric prefixes?

How would you convert from one measurement to another?

Practice:

Try these conversions using the ladder method.

1)1000 mg = ______g

2)160 cm = ______mm

3)109 g = ______kg

4)1 L = ______mL

5)14 km = ______m

6)250 m = ______km

Tools of Biologist 1

  1. How can you make more detailed observations?
  1. What is the International System of Units (SI):

Measure / Definition / Unit(s) / Symbol(s) / Instrument(s)
Distance / Length, Width, Height / Meter / m
Mass / The amount of stuff (matter) / Gram / g
Liquid Volume / The amount of space it takes up / Liter / L
Temperature / How hot or cold something is / Degrees Celsius / °C
Time / How long it takes / Seconds / s

1)How do we measure length?

A B C

Point A= _____ cm or _____ mm

Point B= _____ cm or _____ mm

Point C= _____ cm or _____ mm

2)How do we measure volume of a liquid?

3)How do we measure temperature?

4)How do we measure mass?

Let’s Practice Reading Measurements!

  1. Measuring Length
  1. Measuring Liquid Volume
  1. Measuring TemperatureIV.Measuring Mass

Tools of Biologist 2

1)What is a compound microscope?

2)Why is a compound microscope better than a magnifying glass?

3)What are the parts of the microscope?

Part / Function
A. / where you look through to see the image of your specimen (ocular lens)
B. / the long tube that holds the eyepiece and connects it to the objectives
C. / used for low power magnification of the specimen
used for high power magnification of the specimen (not labeled)
D. / source of light usually found near the base of the microscope; makes the specimen easier to see
E / small, round knob on the side of the microscope used to fine tunethe focus of your specimen after using the coarse adjustment knob
used for focusing on low poweronly (not labeled)
F. / part of the microscope that is grasped when one carries the microscope
supports the microscope (not labeled)
controls the amount of light going through to the specimen (not labeled)
holds slide for viewing specimen (not labeled)
on top of the stage which hold the slide in place (not labeled)
the rotating part of the microscope at the bottom of the body tube; it holdsthe objectives (not labeled)

4)How do objects appear under a microscope?

What would the letter “F” look like under the microscope?

5)How do we measure with a microscope?

Microscope Measurement

To make possible the measurement of cells and cell parts through a microscope, the metric unit, the micrometer (μm) is used.

1 micrometer – 1/1000 millimeter

1 micrometer = 0.001 millimeter

1 millimeter = 1000 micrometers

MILLIMETERS MICROMETERS

MULTIPLY BY 1,000

This will swing the decimal 3 places because there are 3 zeros- to the RIGHT!

NOTE: notice the letters in miLLimeters and micRometers (L to R)- let this help you to remember to swing the decimal to the right!!!

Practice: The width of a human hair is 0.1 mm. The width of this hair in micrometers will be ______μm.

MICROMETERS MILLIMETERS

DIVIDE BY 1,000

This will swing the decimal 3 places to the LEFT!

Practice: The width of an onion cell is 250 μm. Convert this to millimeters. ______mm

Cells are typically found to have diameters of between 10-50 micrometers.

Microscope Measurement Worksheet

Show your work!

  1. Which group of measurement units is correctly arranged in order of increasing size?
  2. micrometer, millimeter, centimeter, meter
  3. meter, micrometer, centimeter, millimeter
  4. micrometer, centimeter, millimeter, meter
  5. millimeter, micrometer, centimeter, meter
  1. A student was using microscope with a 10x eyepiece and 10x and 40x objective lenses. He viewed the edge of a metric rule under low power and observed the following field of vision.

What is the diameter of the low-power field of vision in micrometers?

a) 1 μmb) 2μmc) 1,000μmd) 2,000 μm

  1. The diagram below represents the field of vision of a microscope. What is the approximate diameter of the cell shown in the field?

a) 2,000 micronsb) 1,000 micronsc) 50 micronsd) 500 microns

  1. A student using a compound light microscope estimated the diameter of a white blood cell to be 12 micrometers. What is the diameter of this white blood cell in millimeters?

1) 12mmb) 0.120 mmc) 0.012 mmd) 1.2 mm

  1. A student was observing cells with the microscope and noted that one cell occupied one-fourth of the diameter of the field of view. If the diameter of the field was 1.5 millimeters, what was the approximate length of the cell?

a) 1.5 μmb) 1,500 μmc) 375μmd) 38 μm

  1. If the microscope’s field of view represented by the diagram below measures 1,400 micrometers (μm) in diameters, what is the approximate length of the microorganism within this field of view?

a) 150 μmb) 600 μm

c) 1,000 μmd) 250μm

  1. A student determined that exactly 10 pollen grains could fit along the diameter of the field of view of a microscope. If each pollen grain has a diameter of 200 micrometers, what is the diameter in millimeters of this microscope’s field of view?

a) 2 mmb) 5 mmc) 2,000 mmd) 500 mm

  1. If the diameter of the low power field of your microscope was fond to be 2 millimeters and the ratio between the low power and high power fields was 10, what would the diameter of the high power field be in micrometers?
  2. 0.2
  3. 20
  4. 40
  5. 200
  1. A student observes a cell which just fills the field when he is using the high power objective of his microscope. If the diameter of the field is 0.5 millimeters, the diameter of the cell is
  2. 0.5 micrometers
  3. 22.5 micrometers
  4. 450 micrometers
  5. 500 micrometers
  1. A microscope has a 10x low power objective and a 40x high power objective. The low power diameter is measured to be 1200 micrometers. What is the high power diameter in micrometers?
  2. 100
  3. 200
  4. 300
  5. 400

Tools of Biologist 3

LABORATORY TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

1)How do we prepare a wet-mount?

2)What is an electron microscope?

  • How do they improve images?

3)What is a stereoscope?

4)What is a centrifuge?

5)Why do we stain cells?

6) Why do we use indicators?

  1. What do all of these organisms have in common?

How are they different?

They are all living organisms.

They all must carry out the life processes

to survive.

They carry out the life processes

in many different ways.

  1. What is Biology?

The study of:

  1. Origins and history of life
  2. Structures of living things
  3. Interactions of living things
  4. Function of living things
  1. What do Biologists do?
  2. Study the diversity of life
  3. Research diseases
  4. Develop technologies
  5. Improve agriculture
  6. Preserve the environment
  1. Characteristics of Life: LIVING THINGS…
  2. Are made up of one or more cells:
  1. Unicellular vs.Multicellular
  1. Displayorganization:
  1. For example:

-

-

  1. Grow and Develop:
  2. Growth-
  1. Development-
  1. Reproduce:
  2. How can we explain individual organisms that do not reproduce? (For example, neutered dogs and cats)
  1. Species-
  1. Respond to stimuli
  2. Stimulus-
  1. Response-
  1. Examples:
  1. Require energy
  2. Metabolism:
  1. Autotrophvs.Heterotroph
  1. Maintain Homeostasis
  2. Homeostasis-
  1. Give an example of an organism maintaining homeostasis-
  1. Have adaptations that can evolve over time (evolution)
  2. Adaptation:
  1. Why are adaptations important?

Life Processes/Activities
* MR. STRANGER
M / METABOLISM / The chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life (includes all of the life processes)
R / REGULATION / A ______to a change in the internal/external environment.
S / SYNTHESIS / Building up of ______by joining together small molecules
T / TRANSPORT / Intake (______) of needed materials and their distribution (______)
R / RESPIRATION / Breaking down food to generate ______
A / ASSIMILATION / When an organism incorporates large molecules into itself
N / NUTRITION / Intake of food (______), breaking it down into usable forms (______), and eliminating any food that cannot be digested (______)
G / GROWTH / Increase in ______of an individual or cell
E / EXCRETION / Getting rid of ______
(Ex. urine or sweat)
R / REPRODUCTION / Making of ______

Locomotion- self initiated movement (helps organisms get food, escape enemies, find a mate, seek shelter)