TOPICS FOR PRACTICAL I - Loesch et al, Biology 1406
You will be tested using TEN stations, with a variable number of questions per station, for a total of 50
questions at two points each. You will have FIVE minutes per station. No microscopes or living material
will be used – in order to assure that each student sees the same thing, representative pictures of organisms
and cell types will be provided. These pictures are well drawn – you should have no trouble recognizing
the subject matter. Additionally, where I deem appropriate, further explanations may be provided in the
test questions themselves. The practical will cover laboratory exercises 1 through 6.
FOR LABORATORY EXERCISES 1 THROUGH 6, YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE TO:
1. Know all parts of the microscope. Given objective and ocular lens magnification, know how to
calculate the total magnification of a microscope. Know how an observed microscopic image is affected
by passing it through microscope lenses.
2. Know the chemical CLASSES of solvents – which TYPE of solvents dissolve which TYPES of
solutes. Know the solutes you used in your lab exercises and whether they were polar, nonpolar or ionic.
Know all the properties that water has because it is a polar covalent molecule that can hydrogen bond to
itself. Be able to give examples of organisms that use these properties to live.
3. Know what a buffer is. Which is the most important biological buffer? What pH is most common in
the human body? How is the logarithmic nature of pH used to calculate units of pH change? How is pH
related to hydrogen ion concentration? Know how to express hydrogen ion concentration in terms of
moles per liter of hydrogen ion.
4. Know all test reagents and indicator solutions used in ALL laboratory exercises, both by name and by
use. Know the molecule type that would give positive results for each reagent. Given pictorial
representations of chemical structures, be able to recognize and give the correct scientific names for the
building blocks of all biological macromolecules, and for the polymerized biological macromolecules
themselves.
5. Know all cell structures and organelles found in eukaryotic plant cells and eukaryotic animal cells.
6. Know all names of solution tonicities and what these terms mean. Know all specialized terms used for
plant and animal cells in hypertonic, isotonic, and hypotonic solutions. Be able to predict the cellular
outcome of any cell/osmotic situation. Be able to predict the direction of diffusion of small molecules
through a selectively permeable membrane. Given the solute concentrations, be able to determine
tonicities of solutions on either side of a water permeable membrane.
7. Know all properties of protons, neutrons and electrons. Know the names and properties of all types of
bonds between atoms. Know the name and properties of the special type of bond between water
molecules. Given the atomic numbers of any appropriate elements, be able to draw complete and legible
electron dot representations of molecules containing those elements. I will expect you to know the
valence bonding strategies used for all molecules that you studied.