Download Name Hour ______ Date ______ AP BIO Homework Questions Ch

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AP BIO Homework Questions Ch 1
1. Many people talk about their car as if it was alive, giving it a name and regularly
talking to it. Discuss what characteristics of Life DO apply to a car and which
characteristics of Life DO NOT apply.
2. For each biological level in Figure 1.3 in your text, write a sentence that includes
the next ‘lower’ level. Example: A community consists of populations of the various species
inhabiting a specific area.
3. In the movie “The Transformers,” are these machines (Autobots and Decpticons)
alive? Explain and defend your answer.
4. If Science is a Process, should the content and concepts you learn in AP BIO stay
the same for your entire adult career? Explain.
5. What are the relationships between these three genetic terms: DNA, genes, and
chromosomes?
6. Explain why, at the cellular level, plants have more in common with animals than they
do with bacteria.
7.
A typical prokaryotic cell has about 3,000 genes in its DNA, while a human cell has
about 25,000 genes. About 1,000 of these genes are present in both types of cells.
Based on your understanding of evolution, explain how such different organisms
could have this same subset of genes. What sorts of functions might these shared
genes have?
8.
When you flush a toilet, water begins to fill the tank and lift a float attached to a
lever. When the water level reaches a certain height, the lever shuts the water
valve and prevents the tank from overflowing. What type of regulatory mechanism
is at work in this nonliving system?
9. How is a mailing address analogous to biology’s hierarchical taxonomic system?
10. Explain why ‘editing’ is better than ‘creating’ as a metaphor for how natural
selection acts on a population’s heritable variation.
11. It is common to hear on many TV shows that someone has a “theory” about how a
crime was committed and who was responsible. Discuss if this is a “Theory” or a
“theory”.
12. Imagine that one of the EHS science teachers created a new kind of plant (Yes, it
could happen, if we get a greenhouse) Describe what criteria this plant must have
to be a “success” in terms of Evolution by Natural Selection.
13. Describe what characteristics “Science” uses to investigate the universe that are
unique from other ways of “knowing”.