Lab Safety & Microscopes
What should you always wear over your eyes in the lab?
Safety Goggles
What is the basic unit of life?
The cell
Name any TWO of the 8 characteristics of life.
Any two of: cells, organization, growth & development, reproduction, response to stimuli, use of energy, homeostasis, adaptation
What do we call a testable explanation for an observation?
Hypothesis
What tool do biologists use to observe things too small to see with the naked eye?
Microscope
You use a 10x eyepiece with a 4x objective lens. What is your total magnification?
40x
Put these in order from SMALLEST to LARGEST: organ, cell, tissue, organism, organ system.
Cell → Tissue → Organ → Organ System → Organism
What is the difference between growth and development?
Growth = adding mass/getting bigger; development = all the changes an organism goes through over its lifetime
What is the variable that YOU purposely change in an experiment called?
Independent variable
What do we call an inherited trait that helps an organism survive in its environment?
Adaptation
True or False: You should always start focusing a slide on the HIGHEST power objective lens. Why?
False — always start on the LOWEST power objective lens. So you can view the object first
What is the difference between a unicellular and a multicellular organism?
Unicellular = made of one cell; multicellular = made of many cells
A cactus storing water in its thick stem to survive the desert is an example of which characteristic of life?
Adaptation
What is the purpose of a control group in an experiment?
It's the baseline for comparison — it isolates the effect of the independent variable
What is homeostasis?
Give an example.
Keeping internal conditions stable, even when the outside environment changes.
sweating, shivering
Name THREE things you should do before leaving your lab station at the end of class.
wash your hands, clean/return equipment, report broken items, turn off water or burners
Give an example of a tissue, the organ it belongs to, and the organ system that organ is part of.
Example: cardiac muscle tissue → heart → circulatory system (any valid chain accepted)
Why is a virus a tricky example when biologists discuss whether something is truly "alive"?
It shows only SOME characteristics of life (like reproduction) but not others — it can't reproduce without a host cell, for example
Put these steps of the scientific method in order: Experiment, Conclusion, Hypothesis, Question, Analyze Data, Research.
Question → Research → Hypothesis → Experiment → Analyze Data → Conclusion
Name the variable that responds to a change in an experiment, AND one lab safety rule that would apply if your experiment involved a heat source.
The dependent variable; a safety rule like never leaving a flame unattended or tying back hair/loose clothing near heat
What is the difference between low power microscope and high power microscope?
High power microscope is stronger. Has. a light
Explain why a group of specialized cells working together (a tissue) can do something a single cell cannot.
Cells specialize and divide labor — working together lets them perform complex functions no single cell could do alone
Using at least TWO characteristics of life, explain why fire is NOT considered a living thing.
Fire is not made of cells, does not show true biological organization, and does not use energy the way living things do — it's a chemical reaction, not life
Write a hypothesis in "If...then...because..." form for: Does the amount of sunlight affect plant growth?
If a plant receives more sunlight, then it will grow taller, because sunlight provides the energy plants need for photosynthesis
Bio- means what?
-logy means what?
What would the word ECOLOGY mean?
Life
Study of
Study of the environment