Chapter 1 Review Sheet
AP Biology
Chapter 1 Exam will cover:
Chapter 1 (textbook)
Chapter 1 PowerPoint
Watson and Crick paper
Class Notes not in the book
1.Describe the hierarchy of life starting from the atom level and ending at the ecosystem level. You should know the definition of each level. Ex. What is an ecosystem?
2. In class we discussed the concept of emergent properties. Describe this concept in terms of the hierarchy of life and give examples.
3. You should understand each level of the hierarchy and how each level is different from the others. Ex. Compare and contrast the community level to the population level. How are these two similar and how are they different?
4. In class we discussed a very common relationship known as the structure-function relationship. I used the example of a hammer. Describe this example. Now describe how this relationship relates to living organisms.
4. What is science?
5. Describe why DrT doesn’t really consider AP biology to technically be a class that teaches “science”.
6. Explain why you cannot know for certain (prove) that if I drop a pen it will fall to the Earth before I actually do it even if you have seen that pen drop before.
7. You are walking down the hall in school and as you do, you are moving out of the way of people and people are moving out of the way of you. Do you know that you would hit them if you didn’t move? Why are you moving?
8. In class we spoke about how we cannot know anything for certain because there is always another explanation for what we observe and we cannot know the outcome of any future event since it did not happen yet and therefore we can only make predictions based on prior observations. Therefore the ultimate job of anyone trying to know something be it a scientist, a detective, a lawyer, if someone likes you, if I am standing in front of the classroom, if Jonny cheated on his science test, etc… is to get as close to the ______as possible.
9. In class we said that all people and organisms for that matter are ALWAYS doing science. Whether you’re watching football on TV, playing the guitar, scratching your head, etc… it doesn’t matter, you are doing science. Explain how this is the case.
10. All findings from science are obviously tentative and can surely be fallible. Why are all of our finding and knowledge tentative? Give an example of fallible conclusions. Were these scientists just not very smart? Explain.
11. Know the parts of the scientific method.
12. Describe the two main approaches to science and how they are both
part of a single scientific method.
13. Explain the scientific method in detail. Be able to give an example, stepby-
step, starting with an observation and ending with a conclusion.
14. Be able to design a VALID controlled experiment. Make sure you include
the control and experimental groups, independent variable, dependent
variable, etc…
15. Compare and contrast the independent variable and dependent variable.
Explain where they get their names.
16. What is the purpose of the control group in an experiment and give an
example.
17. Be able to explain the limitations of an experiment and how you might
improve it.
18. How can one make any experiment more valid (there are at least three
general ways)?
19. Explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning
including how they relate to the scientific method.
20. How does a theory differ from a law? Give an example of each. How does
the scientific definition of theory differ from the way the word is used on the
street?
21. How do theories and laws differ from hypotheses? How are they related?
22. When and why might a scientist use a placebo? Why would scientists
perform double-blind experiments?
23. What does the phrase “unity in diversity” refer to? Explain the evidence
for unity in diversity. Make sure to include such things as DNA, cell theory,
comparative anatomy.
24. Describe the SEVEN characteristics that are common to all life and be
sure to give examples of each. Explain why non-living things can have some
of the characteristics, but living things must have all of them. Give an
example of a non-living thing that has at least four of these characteristics.
25. What is meant by metabolism?
26. Explain the purpose of a phlyogenetic tree and why they are useful to
demonstrate unity in diversity. You should be able to read a phylogenetic tree or even build one using supplied data.
27. Describe Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
28. Explain why science cannot support or refute the existence of a
supernatural entity.
29. How many microns in a millimeter?
30. Know the How do we organize (classify) life (taxa)? Compare and contrast the three domains to the five kingdoms.
31. What do I mean when I say that humans have a more recent common ancestor with frogs than with oak trees? Draw a phylogenetic tree that depicts this.
32. What is the term we use for classifying life?
33. Explain the purpose of a phlyogenetic tree and why they are useful to demonstrate unity in diversity.
34. Compare and contrast prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Which domains/kingdoms are each found?
35. Identify the two major groups of bacteria. Why do we split monera into these two domains? Which group are eukaryotes more similar to and why do we hypothesize this? Draw a simple phylogenetic tree of the three domains showing eukarya to have a more recent common ancestor with archae than with eubacteria.
36. List the taxa (plural for taxon) in order from most inclusive to least inclusive in terms of number of species.
37. If two species are grouped into the same family then they must also be part of the same…
38. You should be able to draw a phylogenetic tree if I give you a list of organisms and their relatedness to each other. For example: Draw a phylogenetic tree showing the evolutionary relationship of species A, B, C , D and E based on the following information. Species A and D are part of the same class, species B, C and E are all in the same class as well, but a different class from species A and D, and species C and E are grouped in the same family.
39. Explain what is means when someone says the we are just “star dust”.
40. Know the scientists and their experiments/observations that lead to Watson and Crick solving the structure of DNA.
41. What is a scientific model?
42. Explain why the model of DNA could or may not be correct, and why we can never know if it is or not.
43. Read the Watson and Crick paper and be able to answer questions regarding what they wrote.