Pre AP Biology
Reading Guide Questions – Pages 1 – 8 Introduction: Biology Today, The Scope of Life
Due Thursday, 8/13
1. Give examples in regard to how modern biology is reshaping our very culture.
2. Name and describe the seven characteristics of life described in the text.
3. Name and describe the different levels of biological organization found on our planet.
4. Describe energy and nutrient flow within an ecosystem.
5. Name and describe the two major cell types.
6. What is a gene? What is a genome? What is the field of genomics?
7. What is taxonomy and what does it do? Name and describe the three domains of life.
8. If life is so diverse, how can biology have any unifying themes?
Reading Guide Questions – Pages 13 – 18 Introduction: Biology Today, The Process of Science
Due Wednesday, 8/19
1. What does science attempt to do? In what way is science limited?
2. What is discovery science? What is inductive reasoning and what does it have to do with discovery
science?
3. What does the scientific method attempt? Describe then scientific method. Is it the only way to do
science?
4. What is a hypothesis? What is hypothesis-driven science?
5. What is deduction? How does it relate to hypothesis-driven science?
6. What question is asked in the example involving snakes?
7. What kind of experiment was used to investigate the question described in #6? Describe this kind of
experiment.
8. What is meant in the text by the term “the scientific culture”?
9. What two key features distinguish science from other styles of inquiry?
10. Why is it important that each of us is a “citizen scientist”? Can science and technology alone advance
man? In what way is technology a double edged sword?
11. What is a theory in science, and how does it differ from a hypothesis?