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Science 7 Midterm Study Guide
Midterm Date: February 3rd, 2015
**Please note that not all material is covered in the Discovery Online Textbook. For units that can be
found in the online text, the unit name has been provided for you. For every unit, please make sure to
refer back to old exams/quizzes and your notes!**
I. The Scientific Method and Experimental Design
Textbook: None
You should be familiar with:
 How to generate a hypothesis for an experiment
 The difference between independent and dependent variables
 Identifying variables that are controlled in scientific experiments
 The importance of controlling variables in scientific experiments
 How to create and interpret bar and line graphs
II. Characteristics of Life & Life Functions
Textbook Unit: Classifying Living Things
You should be familiar with:
 all life functions and the six characteristics of living things
 why the experiments of Louis Pasteur and Francesco Redi were important
III. The Microscope
Textbook: None
You should be familiar with:
 the parts of a compound microscope
 the functions of these parts
 where these parts are located on a microscope diagram
 how to calculate total magnification
 how magnification affects field of view
IV. Classification
Textbook Unit: Classifying Living Things
You should be familiar with:
 binomial nomenclature
 seven levels of classification (kingdom to species)
 the definition of “species”
 the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms
 how to use a dichotomous key
 how and why scientists classify living things
V. Cells
Textbook Unit: Cells and Cell Processes
You should be familiar with:
 The main principles of the cell theory
 Cell organelles and their functions
 The similarities and differences between plant and animal cells
 The similarities and differences between active transport and passive transport
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Examples of both active and passive transport
What it means for a cell to be “specialized”
The process of photosynthesis (including the chemical equation)
The process of cellular respiration (including the chemical equation)
How cellular respiration and photosynthesis are related to one another
VI. The Cell Cycle, DNA, and Cancer
Textbook Unit: Reproduction and Heredity
You should be familiar with:
 The stages of the cell cycle
 The physical appearance of cells at each stage in the cell cycle
 The major events that occur during each stage in the cell cycle
 How daughter cells compare to parent cells after cell division occurs
 The reasons why cell division occurs
 The structure of DNA and base-pairing rules
 Why/how DNA is a code for the traits of a living thing
 How to describe cancer
VII. Mendelian Genetics
Textbook Unit: Reproduction and Heredity
You should be familiar with:
 what a gene is
 what a chromosome is
 how genes and chromosomes are related
 the difference between genotype and phenotype
 the difference between homozygous and heterozygous/hybrid
 the relationship between dominant and recessive alleles
 developing, using, and interpreting a Punnett Square (this includes calculating probabilities)
 the difference between incomplete dominance and codominance
VIII. Modern Genetics
Textbook Unit: Reproduction and Heredity
You should be familiar with:
 the structure, function, and chemical makeup of DNA
 base pairing in DNA
 what a mutation is and why it can affect an organism
 the role of DNA and mRNA in protein synthesis
 the use of karyotypes