Life Science Objective Booklet
3a. Analyze how adaptations to a particular environment can increase an organism’s survival and reproduction and relate organisms and their ecological niches to evolutionary change and extinction.
1)What is an adaptation?
a)Explain structural adaptations and give an example.
b)Explain behavioral adaptations and give an example.
2)What type of adaptations have plants evolved over the years?
3)Describe how protective coloration can be used to help an organism survive.
4)Explain the differences between an aquatic and a terrestrial ecosystem.
a)What type of adaptations would you expect to find in organisms of aquatic ecosystems?
b)What type of adaptations would you expect to find in organisms of terrestrial ecosystems?
5)What is evolution and why does it occur?
6)What is extinction?
7)Why do some organisms hibernate or migrate?
3b. Compare and contrast the major components and functions of different types of cells.
1)Draw a plant and animal cell. Be sure to include ALL of the proper organelles in the each cell.
2)What organelles are present in a plant cell, but missing from the animal cell?
3)Give the function of each of the following organelles.
a)Nucleus
b)Cytoplasm
c)Nuclear membrane
d)Cell membrane
e)Cell wall
f)Chloroplast
g)Mitochondria
h)Ribosomes
i)Large vacuole
j)Golgi apparatus
4)List and describe the four main tissue types.
5)Draw a picture of each of the four main tissue types.
6)What is the organization of life beginning with the cell?
3c. Describe how viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites may infect the human body and interfere with normal body functions.
1)What is a pathogen?
2)Diseases
a)Differ between infectious diseases, genetic disorder, and body system failures. Explain how to treat/cure each of the types of diseases.
b)List 3 infectious diseases caused by bacteria.
c)List 3 infectious diseases caused by a virus.
d)List 3 genetic disorders.
e)List 3 infectious diseases caused by parasites/protist?
f)List 3 infectious diseases caused by fungi?
3)How can each type of infectious disease be treated and/or prevented?
4)Explain how a vaccine works.
5)Explain various types of symptoms associated with fungal infections.
6)Allergies and asthma are not caused by pathogens; explain the body’s response to stimuli that triggers allergic reactions and asthma attacks.
7)There are several organ systems in the human body that can be affected by pathogens. Describe the function of each of the following organ systems: digestive, immune, integumentary, circulatory, respiratory, excretory, reproductive, skeletal, muscular, nervous, and endocrine. Which system is primarily external in both males and females?
3f. Develop a logical argument for or against research conducted in selective breeding and genetic engineering, including (but not limited to) research conducted in Mississippi. Examples from Mississippi include the following:
1)What is biotechnology?
2)What is the difference between selective breeding and genetic engineering?
3)What is a genome?
4)List 2 benefits and 2 risks of biotechnology.
5)What are the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid species versus purebred species?
6)What places in Mississippiare involved with biotechnology?
3g. Research and draw conclusions about the use of single-celled organisms in industry, in the production of food, and impacts on life.
1)Describe the beneficial uses of microorganisms in the food industry.
2)Give two examples of microorganism’s industrial uses.
3)Explain how microorganisms may be used to clean-up toxic spills in the environment.
4)Describe where beneficial microorganisms are found in your body, and what they do.
3d. Describe heredity as the passage of instructions from one generation to another and recognize that hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell.
1)Sexual fertilization differs from asexual reproduction because sexual fertilization involves gametes.
a)How are gametes formed and how do they differ from their parent cell?
b)What happens during fertilization?
c)What is a zygote?
d)Explain two forms of asexual fertilization. (budding and binary fission)
e)What is a mutation and how do they occur? Are they always harmful?
f)Describe how parents pass traits on to their offspring.
2)What is the difference between a dominant and a recessive trait?
3)Explain the hierarchy of DNA to physical expression of traits.
4)Define the following and give an example of each.
a)Genotype
i)Homozygous dominant (Purebred)
ii)Heterozygous (Hybrid)
iii)Homozygous recessive (Purebred)
b)Phenotype
5)In humans, brown eyes are dominant to blue eyes. Both Joe and Cindy are heterozygous for brown eyes (Bb). If they marry and have a child, what are the possible genotypes of their child? What are the possible phenotypes of their child?
6)What is a pedigree and how can it be used by geneticist.
7)Create your own Punnett square problem and solve it.
3e. Explain energy flow in a specified ecosystem.
1)Define each of the following as part of an ecosystem. Give an example of each.
a)Producers
b)Primary consumers (herbivores)
c)Secondary consumers (carnivores)
d)Decomposers.
2)Different organisms have relationships with other organisms. Compare and contrast the following relationship types. Give an example of each relationship type.
a)Predator-prey relationship
b)Parasitism
c)Mutualism
d)Commensalism
3)What is the difference between an abiotic factor and a biotic factor?
4)What is the difference between fresh water, brackish water, and salt water?
5)Explain the hierarchy of living organisms in their environment.
6)What is a niche?
7)Outline the characteristic of the 8 major biomes.
8)What is depicted in an energy pyramid?
9)What are phytoplanktons?
10)What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? Illustrate an example of each.
11)About what percent of energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next?
3h. Describe how organisms get energy from oxidizing their food, and release some of their energy as heat.
1)Give the reactants, products, and location for a photosynthesis reaction.
2)Give the reactants, products, and location for the cellular respiration process.
3)Explain the differences between aerobic respiration and anaerobic respiration.
4)What biological process provides most of an organism’s thermal energy?