The 2nd examination is scheduled for Friday, Oct, 22nd. This exam covers the Protists and Non-Chordate Animals.  The number of points in the exam for the Protist and Non-Chordate Animal sections will be proportional (40% for Protists and 60% for the Non-Chordate animals) to the number of lectures devoted to each section.

DO NOT think of each block of information (evolution, protists, etc.) as separate from each other.  Our course has an evolutionary theme and many of the same phenomena exist in each group.

Obviously you need to KNOW the basic information AND have it reasonably at your fingertips.  In addition you need to UNDERSTAND the material so that you can make connections.  In other words, memorization is necessary, and will help, but you must also go beyond pure memorization in your preparation.

Below are some sample questions for the Protist section.  Remember, these are examples of the TYPE of question that could be asked, not necessarily questions that will be asked.  IF you can do the following then you are preparing properly for the exam then you should do well.

1)For the take home question (given out in class on 10/13) do not just list all the information in your handouts, notes and text for a taxon. All information may not apply. This is to be a carefully thought out and constructed answer.  Brevity (but with adequate detail/reasoning) and logic are essential.

2) Can you DEFINE basic terms and phenomena (e.g. – haplobiontic life cycle, pseudopodium, sporophyte, coenocytic, undulipodium, isogamete, planktonic, gametic meiosis, etc.)? Note: an example is NOT a definition!

3) If given a list of structures/processes/phenomena could you match it up with its phylum or domain?  This could be asked as either a matching question or as a multiple choice question.  For example, do you know which taxa are autotrophic (and is it Type I or Type II) or heterotrophic, sexual or asexual, where meiosis occurs in the life cycle of a taxon, if they possess motility structures, or if they have economic importance (positive or negative) and what it is?
If given some phyla in one column and some attributes / structures / substances in a second column, could you match them up?
a) Rhodophyta
b) Ciliophora
c) Euglenophyta
d) Dinoflagellata
e) Rhizopoda

1) neurotoxins
2) pseudopodia
3) lack a cell wall
4) phycoerythrin
5) macronucleus

BEST ANSWERS: Rhodophyta(4), Ciliophora(5), Euglenophyta(3), Dinoflagellata(1), Rhizopoda(2)

4) If asked, could you discuss things briefly (but logically and clearly) things such as: the advantages/disadvantages of sexual reproduction; the differences between Type I and II photosynthesis, the advantages of multicellularity over unicellularity; the difference between haplobiontic and diplobiontic life cycles, etc.

5) Can you explain how the motility structures of Bacteria differ from those in the Eukaryotes, how mitosis differs from meiosis, eukaryotic cilia from eukaryotic flagella?

6) Some examples of multiple choice type questions are given below.

Which of the following is the most ancient?
a) mitosis
b) respiration
c) meiosis
d) Archaea
e) type II photosynthesis

All photosynthetic protists have:
a) chlorophyll b
b) type II photosynthesis
c) type I photosynthesis
d) undulipodia
e) sexual reproduction

ALL sexually reproducing organisms MUST have:
a) meiosis
b) isogamy
c) colonial body structure
d) chloroplasts
e) haplobiontic life cycles

Which of the following would NOT apply to a member of the Ciliophora?
a) organelles
b) heterotrophic
c) eukaryotic
d) binucleate or multinucleate
e) multicellular

Eukaryotes evolved about _______ years ago.
a) 150 million
b) 400 million
c) 1.5 billion
d) 165 million
e) 3.5 billion

Which phylum gave rise to plants?
a) Phaeophyta
b) Choanoflagellata
c) Bacillariophyta
d) Chlorophyta
e) Myxomycota

Multiple Choice Answers: d, b, a, e, c, d.  Do you UNDERSTAND why the other choices in a question are incorrect?