Environmental Science Final Exam Study Guide
Exam scheduled for Wednesday, June 18
Exam format: 175 Multiple choice questions
Chapter 3: Systems
- Know the nutrient cycle diagrams Section 4
- Know the layers of the earth
- Properties of water and the water cycle
- Know the spheres of the earth.
- Macromolecules in section 2.
- What is nitrogen fixation?
- How does nitrogen fixation occur?
- Importance of limiting factors….examples
Chapter 6: Biomes and Aquatic ecosystems
- What is a biome?
- How are they classified?
- Choose a biome and know characteristic about that biome.
- Know how to create a climatogram – know how to plot the temperature and precipitation
- What is Net Primary Production? What is Gross primary production? How do these terms differ?
- What effects Net Primary production?
Chapter 9: Environmental Health and Video Discussions
- What are the differnet environmental health hazards?
- Impacts of fossil fuels on our environment?
- What is Biomagnification?
- Difference between primary and secondary air pollutants
- What is causing the ozone hole?
Chapter 17 covers our video Oil Discussions.
Chapter 18 Video discussions on Renewable Energy
Chapter 19 Discussions on Pollution.
What is Eutrophication?
What are endochrine disruptors
This is included in your study guide. The issues brought up during this discussion will be included on the exam.
Frontline: Poisoned Waters
1.When was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formed? What events prompted its formation?
2.How did deregulation of industry during the Reagan years affect water quality and the overall power of the Environmental Protection Agency?
- What does “voluntary compliance” mean?
- Why do businesses favor voluntary compliance?
3.The Clean Water Act of 1972 allows citizens to sue alleged offenders if government agencies do not act. Why is that provision of the law important?
4.The expression “canary in the coal mine” means an early warning of danger. (Coal miners would carry canaries or small animals with them into mines to detect deadly but odorless and tasteless methane gas.)
- To what does the expression “canary in the coal mine” apply in Poisoned Waters?
5.Twenty million Americans took to the streets for the first Earth Day in 1970 as a result of pollution they could see and smell: The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland burned, with flames that towered eight stories high; the1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara closed virtually all the beaches in Southern California; people had declared Lake Erie dead.
- How, according to the film, have both pollution and people's reaction to Earth Day changed since 1970?
6.What do “endocrine disruptors” do? Why do genetic mutations in fish disturb scientists so much?
7.How do the products that average people use each day end up polluting the nation's and world's waterways?
8.How should we pay for environmental cleanup? Should it be the responsibility of industry? Government? Individuals? Explain your reasoning.
9.The Agricultural Industry is one of the major water polluters. What about this industry causes so much pollution? What are some proposed solutions?
10.The Orca populations in Puget Sound are declining. What is the suspected agent of the population decline?
11.What are PCB’s? In chapter 11 we studied Biomagnification. How do PCB’s relate to Biomagnification?
12.How does storm drain runoff compare to oil spills? In your opinion, what is the worse pollutant of the two?
13.How does development and construction increase water pollution?
14.Describe the conflict between Washington State’s King County executive Ron Simms and some of the residents of King County. If you were forced to choose a side in this issue, whom would you side with and why? (Note: which side you choose will not affect your score for this question.)