Chapter 1: Biology: Exploring Life

1. Define biology. Explain what is meant by science. Explain the reading about the snowy owls and how it is a good example of evolutionary diversity (Introduction and Lecture).

2. List and define the levels of biological organization and briefly describe their interrelationship. Define emergent properties (Module 1.1 and Lecture).

3. Outline the role of producers or autotrophs (plants, certain bacteria and some plant protists), consumers or heterotrophs (animals, some bacteria, some protists) and decomposers (fungi, some bacteria). (Module 1.4 and Lecture)

4. Distinguish between chemical cycling and energy flow in an ecosystem (Module 1.4 and Lecture).

5. Based on cells and DNA, briefly explain why all forms of life have common features. Relate this to the features that can be used to distinguish life from nonlife (Modules 1.1, 1.3, 1.4 and Lecture).

6. List the three Domains of life, briefly describe each and give examples of organisms from each. Explain how Kingdoms relate to these three Domains (Module 1.6 and Lecture).

7. Summarize the basic concepts of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection (What is a scientific Theory, how does it differ from a hypothesis and how does it differ from the everyday use of the term theory) (Module 1.7 and Lecture).

8. Explain what is meant by “discovery science” and what is meant by “hypothesis-based science” and why most scientists use a combination of these two types of inquiry (Modules