Science!
This is the ongoing process of asking questions about the natural world and testing possible explanations through observation and experimentation.
Scientific Method
All living things are composed of one or more of this basic structural and functional unit of life.
Cell
This is the smallest unit of organization that is nonliving
Atom
This British naturalist is credited with proposing the theory of natural selection after observations made during his voyage
Charles Darwin
This major theme of biology holds that the way a structure is closely related to ______, at every level from molecules to whole organisms.
Function
A tentative, testable explanation for an observation or question is called this.
Hypothesis
This property of life describes an organism's ability to maintain stable, balanced internal conditions even as its external
Homeostasis
A group of similar cells that work together to perform a specific function is called this.
Tissue
This term describes the naturally occurring differences in traits among individuals of the same species.
This term describes new properties that arise at each successive level of biological organization, due to the arrangement and interactions of parts at the level below
Emergent properties
A student wants to know if the amount of light affects plant growth. She sets up four pots under different light levels, keeping water and soil identical for all of them. The factor she deliberately changes across the groups is called this
Independent Variable
A single bacterium in a petri dish splits into two identical daughter cells, and those two soon split again into four. This property of life is being demonstrated
Reproduction
Cardiac muscle tissue, connective tissue, and nervous tissue all work together to pump blood through the body. Together, these tissues make up this level of biological organization
In a population of beetles, some are green and blend into the leaves, while others are brown and stand out. Birds eat the brown beetles more often. Over time, the green beetles are more likely to do these two things, passing their coloring on to the next generation.
Survive and Reproduce
A biologist watches wild otters in their natural habitat and records how often they use tools, without changing anything about their environment.
What kind of data is she taking
Observational Data
A student wants to know if the amount of light affects plant growth. She sets up four pots under different light levels, keeping water and soil identical for all of them. the student measures each plant's height in centimeters after two weeks. This factor — the one she records, which may change as a result of the light levels — is called this
Dependent Variable
Living things grow and _______. this process, meaning they undergo orderly change from a simpler to a more complex or specialized state over their lifetime.
Develop
Every white-tailed deer living in a particular forest, all capable of interbreeding with one another, together make up this level of biological organization
Population
A population of moths lives on trees coated in dark soot from a nearby factory. Over many generations, moths with darker wings become more common because they blend in and avoid predators better than lighter moths. This darker wing color is an example of this.
Adaptation
Life depends on the transfer and transformation of -______ & __________
energy & matter
This is a broad, well-supported explanation for a set of observations that has been repeatedly tested and is supported by a large body of evidence
Theory
A hiker's leg muscles need energy to keep climbing, so her body breaks down the granola bar she ate at lunch to release usable energy for her cells. This property of life is being demonstrated.
Energy Processing
Creatures, Plants, and the Environment they exist in.
Ecosystem
This process allows genetic information to be passed from parents to offspring in the form of genes, connecting one generation to the next.
inheritance/heredity
The central dogma of Biology
DNA - RNA - Protein