Regents Skills
A table gives numbers from an investigation. Students use the numbers to support a claim. What are the numbers called?
Data or evidence
A skin cell and a nerve cell contain the same DNA, but they have different shapes and jobs. What explains the difference?
Different genes are expressed in different cell types
A model shows carbon dioxide and water entering a plant cell. Glucose and oxygen leave the cell. Which process is shown?
Photosynthesis
What term describes the largest population size an ecosystem can support over time?
Carrying capacity
What term means a heritable trait that helps an organism survive or reproduce in a specific environment?
Adaptation
A Regents question asks, “Which statement best supports the claim?” What should the correct answer be based on?
Evidence from the information, model, graph, or table
A model shows this sequence:
DNA → mRNA → protein → trait
A change in the DNA causes a different protein to be made. What could explain why the trait may change?
The protein may have a different structure or function.
A model shows glucose and oxygen entering a cell. Carbon dioxide and water leave the cell. Explain how the model shows a transfer of matter and energy.
Matter is rearranged from glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water, and energy is transferred to ATP.
Zebra mussels spread quickly in a lake and use food and space before native mussels can use them. What interaction is occurring?
Competition for limited resources
For a trait to become more common over generations, what must be true about the trait?
It must be heritable and passed to offspring
A model shows parts of two body systems working together to keep blood glucose normal. What idea is the model showing?
Homeostasis through interactions between body systems
or
Negative Feedback
CRISPR edits DNA in a fertilized egg before the first mitotic division. Why will many body cells have the edit?
Mitosis copies the edited DNA into new daughter cells.
Identical cells are produced by mitosis
Phytoplankton take in carbon dioxide dissolved in ocean water and make glucose. Between which two spheres is carbon moving?
Hydrosphere and biosphere
A keystone species decreases, and several other populations change. What is likely happening to ecosystem stability?
Stability is decreasing because interactions in the food web are changing
A model shows a beetle population before and after a wildfire. After the fire, the tree bark is darker. Birds eat beetles that are easier to see.
Step 1: Identify the beetle color that gives a survival advantage after the wildfire.
Step 2: Explain how the beetle population may change over many generations.
Dark brown beetles have a survival advantage. They are harder for birds to see, so they are more likely to survive and reproduce. The dark brown trait may become more common in the population.
A graph shows pesticide resistance increasing over many generations. What should a student use to explain the trend?
Evidence from the graph and reasoning about survival and reproduction
Two genes have different DNA sequences and make proteins with different functions. What claim is supported?
The sequence of DNA determines the structure and function of proteins
Krill eat phytoplankton and produce waste pellets that sink to the ocean floor. How can this affect carbon cycling?
Carbon can move from the water/atmosphere into organisms and deep-ocean storage
A long winter delays the growth of autotrophs in a forest. Explain how this delay may affect the carrying capacity for white-tailed deer.
Autotroph growth provides food for deer. If less food is available, the forest can support fewer deer, so the carrying capacity decreases.
A cougar population dropped from millions to fewer than 1,000. How would modern bison DNA likely compare to older populations?
Modern bison likely have less genetic diversity
Engineers design wildlife bridges to help animals cross highways. What two things should be considered when evaluating this solution?
Criteria and constraints, such as survival, cost, safety, and environmental impact
Only insulin can bind to its specific receptor protein on a muscle cell, causing glucose to enter the cell. What biology idea is shown?
Protein structure is related to protein function
A food web has many producers and fewer top predators. Why is there usually less biomass at higher levels?
Only some energy is transferred; much energy is used for life processes or released as heat
A treatment kills most insects, but a few insects with natural resistance survive and reproduce. What may happen over time?
The resistant insect population may increase due to natural selection
Scientists find that two different mammals make a very similar insulin protein. The insulin proteins are made of many of the same amino acids.
Step 1: What does this suggest about the DNA of the two mammals?
Step 2: What larger evolutionary idea could this evidence support?
The two mammals likely have similar DNA instructions for making insulin. This evidence could support common ancestry.