Instructor: Steven Clark Clark Community College sclark@clark.edu
Usually, about 50% of the questions on a quiz (lab or lecture) will be randomly selected from the study topics/questions below. I suggest that students read these before and after they read their text. Bring any questions that you cannot answer to me in lecture, lab, conference or in my office and I will help you address them. Realize that I will be less likely to discuss these right before a quiz.
Garrett Hardin Questions based on Tragedy of the Commons
Elements from Chapter 1
1. Define environment
2. According to the lecture what happened 10,000 years ago and what was its impact?
3. What was the point of the kangaroo rat [Lecture]?
4. What was the point of the composting toilet [Lecture]?
5. Understand figure 1.4.
6. Why are the Erlichs called neo-Malthusians?
7. Be able to explain what happened on Easter Island. I’m especially interested in how Easter Island relates to current situations.
8. Ecology
9. Sustainability
10. Scientific method
11. Question 7 page 21.
12. All Garrett Hardin questions
13. Give an example of confirmation bias.
14. What is the formal antidote for confirmation bias? The informal?
15.
In the pika example, what were the first three steps of the scientific
method?
16. Why is common sense (sometimes) the enemy of science?
17. Six steps of scientific method.
18. Scientists don’t like to say, “This is a Fact.” Why?
19. Figure 1.16
20. “A thing is right when it tends to ___________.” Aldo Leopold
21. Why does the bullfrog have an "unfair advantage" over the western pond turtle? To put it another way, how is it that the bullfrog can kill the Washington turtles so easily?
22. Chapter 1 Post Test from the book’s website: Questions 1,5,6,10,11 and 18.
Elements from Chapter 2
1. Figure 2.1a is logical but incomplete. Explain.
2. In what way might the dumping of sewage in a river the result of a business doing cost benefit analysis?
3. Be able to explain 2 ecosystem services.
4. Page 28; four problems with supply-demand economics.
5. A Politician will tell you _________. Steven Clark would tell you __________. [Lecture 10/1].
6. From lecture, describe the three ways that environmental problems are related to economics.
7. Know 2 items from figure 2.11
8. What is a market failure? Example.
9. In general, what is typically done to address market failures?
10. Why does the book address free riders and external costs? What point is being made by the author?
11. Why is Rachel Carson significant in our discussion of policy?
12. Of the 5 groups discussed on pages 40-41, which is most likely to advocate for environmental protections? Which is least likely?
23. Chapter 2 Post Test from the book’s website: Questions 2,3,4 {I may add more later}.
QUIZ ONE OCT. 3
Elements from Chapter 3
1. My in-class word list handouts with describe and significance questions.
2. From the book website: Chapter 3/The Science Behind the Story: Hypoxia and the Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone. Question number 1.
3. Book website chapter 3 post test questions: 2,4,5,6,8,9,10,14,16,19,20,24.
Elements from chapter 4 Up to and including page 77.
1. Be able to discuss the golden toads
2. What is evolution?
3. A tiger and a lion can have babies. Why aren’t they members of the same species?
4. From lecture; why did I defend the book’s statement that “. . . evolutionary theory is indispensible . . .”?
5. Figure 4.4
6. Questions TBA _______ (remind Mr. Clark to add these) from the book’s website.
QUIZ TWO OCT. 16
Elements from chapter 4
1. Biologists hope that on a foggy spring morning, a young otter . . .
2. What are the genetic implications of the founder’s effect?
3. What doomed the harlequin frog?
4. Why can’t a species maintain exponential growth?
5. Understand figure 4.12
6. What happened to the grizzlies in the US?
7. Give an example of an animal with low/high biotic potential. Use examples that I didn’t lecture about.
8. Give examples of density and non-density dependent limiting factors.
9. Is _________ (I’ll provide an example) an r or K species? Explain.
10. What happened one foggy May morning that was good news for the Washington sea otters? Explain the benefit.
11. Be comfortable with age structure diagrams.
12. What is the initial outcome of the founders’ effect? (By initial I mean the first 50 generations).
13. I discussed the bison because . . .
14. The sixth mass extinction.
15. Explain niche.
16. Sex and mutations both contribute to____________.
17. Give an example of a specialist and a generalist. [Book]
18. With 1000 passenger pigeons left, they still died out. Why?
19. List a pro and a con of high population density.
20. Review your population notes from lab.
21. Give an example of natural selection.
22. This is an
example of: 
23. Why did I discuss goose bumps in lecture?
24. Why did I discuss homologous structures?
25. Book’s Post Test web site questions.
Elements from Chapter 5
1. What do biota compete for?
2. Define community.
3. I mentioned that the zebra mussel is a good poster child for community ecology. What does it demonstrate? [Lecture]
4. Table 5.1
5. The nuthatch is in a negative/negative competitive structure with the brown creeper, but they don’t seem to compete. Explain.
6. Why do prey have stronger natural selection pressure than do predators?
7. Give examples of producers and different levels of consumers.
8. Be able to answer the following kinds of questions: Animal X eats grass and seeds therefore it is a ____________________.
9. Figure 5.6
10. What is the Latin derivation of autotroph?
11. Keystone organisms.
12. Succession (causes, description, examples).
13. The world’s largest ecological restoration project . . .
14. If this consumer has no predators it may be called a ______________.
15. The two greatest determinants of a biome are __________ and _________. A lesser determinant might be ___________ (there are several possible answers) [Book].
16. In which biome do we live?
17. Chapter 5 book website post test questions.
QUIZ 3
Know the following for quiz 4:
My in-class word list handouts with describe and significance questions for chapters 6 and 7.
Chapter 8. Read all.
China’s one child policy chapter 6
Study topics from the chapter6/ 7 Student Word List (Describe/Significance)
Chapter 8 post chapter test on line
3 ways of looking at biodiversity
Island Biogeography
What are the 3 Cs
Make the argument that a $10 new shirt may not be a “bargain”.
Give an example of a purchase based on the second C.
According to lecture, what is the hoped for benefit of the “Awareness Activities”?
Vancouver has inexpensive electricity compared to much of the rest of the US. According to lecture, how might that cheap electricity not be a bargain?
According to lecture, finish this thought: “Hi, I’m Steven and I am a _________.”
Give an example of what a building might do to get LEEDs certification [Labs]
On line post test questions from chapter 8
What is the Living Planet Index
Causes of extinction
__________ is less significant in extinctions than the public perception holds it to be. [Book]
Extinct/extirpt
Explain Biophilia
Be able to give a 2 sentence bio of E.O. Wilson.
Three ways of viewing biodiversity
Discuss sub-species. Be able to teach it to a high schooler.
100 million, 5 million, 30 million . . .what are these numbers describing?
Complete the thought: 99% of all species______________. [Book]
Learn one example from figure 8.13 and one from 8.14.
Read the Science behind the Story pg 176-177.
I like all the comprehension questions from page 182 [Book]
What are the 3 Cs
Make the argument that a $10 new shirt may not be a “bargain”.
Give an example of a purchase based on the second C.
According to lecture, what is the hoped for benefit of the “Awareness Activities”?
Vancouver has inexpensive electricity compared to much of the rest of the US. According to lecture, how might that cheap electricity not be a bargain?
According to lecture, finish this thought: “Hi, I’m Steven and I am a _____________.”
Note: An Inconvenient Truth questions will be on the last exam.