Download Final Exam Study Guide 2016

Final Exam Study Guide 2016
Standard: 8.2 The student will demonstrate an understanding of Earth’s biological
diversity over time. (Life Science, Earth Science)
1. List the conditions that help preserve organisms as fossils.
2. You are observing two separate rock layers; you notice that in the rock layers you see the same type
of fossils. What can you conclude from this?
3. Define the following terms: absolute dating and relative dating.
4. If you observe an area in horizontal rock layers that has a gap. What is this called?
5. You are observing sequences of rock in different locations, if the rock sequences are the same, what
can you conclude?
6. If one rock layer has fossils that are 6oo million years old and another rock layer has fossils that are
100 million years old, which rock layer is the youngest?
7. What does correlated mean?
8. Describe how geologic time is divided. What is the longest subdivision of geologic time?
9. What life forms were present in the following era: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic?
10. What role did cyanobacteria play in the development of our atmosphere? How did this contribute to
the development of progressively more complex life forms?
11. What signaled the end of the Paleozoic Era?
12. When did dinosaurs evolve?
13. Why do paleontologists use trilobites as index fossils? List the criteria for a fossil to be considered
an index fossil.
14. What sort of parenting evidence have paleontologists found concerning some species of dinosaurs?
15. What is the benefit of a species adapting to a changing environment?
16. List the adaptations that evolved that preceded modern day reptiles.
17. When did humans first appear?
Standard: 8-3
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the materials that
determine the structure of Earth and the processes that have altered this
structure.
1. If you are trying to explain to someone how to identify where the youngest and oldest rocks on the ocean
floor are located, how would you explain it?
2. List and describe the layers of the Earth.
3. The Earth’s plates have a specific layer of the Earth that enables the plates to move. What is this layer called?
4. Where can you find evidence of plate movement?
5. List and describe the evidence found by Wegener that supported his hypothesis of continental drift.
6. List and describe the movement at plate boundaries. Draw a diagram of each type.
7. Why didn’t scientists first accept Wegener’s hypothesis that a single continent called Pangaea once existed?
8. What is a subduction zone? What happens at subduction zones?
9. What is seafloor spreading and where does it happen?
10. What are convection currents? Where do these currents take place?
11. What causes hot, plastic like rock in the asthenosphere to rise toward the Earth’s surface?
12. Draw a labeled diagram of a complete convection current.
13. What type of plate boundary is The Great Rift Valley in Africa? What is going to eventually happen?
14. The collision of two continental plates result in the formation of what landform?
15. Name the well-known transform boundary in the state of California.
16. What is the result of the colliding of two oceanic plates?
17. How does an earthquake occur?
18. What is the elastic limit of rocks? When this limit has been reached, what is the result?
19. What accounts for the different readings of arrival time when you take readings from three seismograph
stations?
20. What type of waves did scientists study to learn about changes in Earth’s interior?
21. List and describe the forces at the three plate boundaries. State what type of fault occurs at each type of plate
boundary.
22. Describe the movement of rock at a normal fault.
23. Describe the movement of rock at a strike-slip fault.
24. Describe the movement of rock at a reverse fault.
25. Compare and contrast the three types of seismic waves.
26. What is triangulation? Hint: How many seismograph stations are used to locate the epicenter of an
earthquake?
27. Differentiate between the focus and epicenter.
28. List and describe the speed and direction of all types of seismic waves when they encounter the following:
crust, liquid outer core, core, and mantle.
29. How is the magnitude of an earthquake measured? What scale is used?
Standard: 8-3
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the materials that
determine the structure of Earth and the processes that have altered this
structure.
1. List and describe the three groups of rocks. Include the subcategories of the rocks. How are rocks classified?
2. What are minerals?
3. List and explain what properties are used to identify minerals.
4. Explain the rock cycle. Use a diagram.
5. Mineral crystals can give information about the mineral. What sort of information?
6. How were the Hawaiian Islands formed ?
7. Explain contour lines on a topographic map.
8. List and explain the “rules” of contour lines.
9. What do index contour lines indicate?
Standard: 8-4 The
student will demonstrate an understanding of the
characteristics, structure, and predictable motions of celestial bodies.
1. Describe the difference between: meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites
2. There is only one planet in our solar system where H2O can be found as a solid, liquid, and gas. What is the
name of this planet?
3. What planets have orbits that closer to the sun than Earth?
4. What color are the hottest stars?
5. List, draw and describe the three shapes of galaxies. What shape is our galaxy? Where are we located in our
galaxy?
6. What is a black hole?
7. What are sunspots? How would recognize sunspots in a picture of the Sun?
8. What is a galaxy?
9. How would you describe constellations?
10. Why are different constellations only visible at certain times during the year?
11. What is a nebula? How do nebulas relate to stars?
12. Compare and contrast natural and artificial satellites.
13. Who was the first human to step onto the moon?
14. What are characteristics of the space shuttle that make it appealing to space exploration?