Learning Objectives for General Biology II

Laboratory Objectives

• Exercise 24: Plant Diversity: Tracheophytes
• Exercise 26: Animal Diversity: Mollusks and Arthropods
• Exercise 27: Animal Diversity: Chordates
• Exercise 28: Plant Anatomy
• Exercise 29: Angiosperm Development
• Exercise 30: Water Movement in Plants
• Exercise 37: Animal Form
• Exercise on Digestion
• Exercise 38: Physiology of Circulation
• Exercise 39: Gas Exchange
• Exercise 41: Nervous System
• Exercise 44: Predator-Prey Relations
• Exercise on Foraging Strategy

1. State the characteristics of the plant kingdom.
2. Diagram a generalized cycle of the alternation of generation in plants, and explain the difference between homosporous and heterosporous plants with respect to the life cycle.
3. Identify representative members of the three divisions of seedless tracheophytes (often called "ferns and fern allies").
4. Distinguish between roots, rhizoids, and rhizomes.
5. Describe the life cycle of a fern; distinguish between the gametophyte and sporophyte generations.
6. Distinguish between monocot and dicot flower types.
7. Identify and state the function of the parts of a flower.
8. Differentiate between pollination and fertilization.

1. Distinguish between the shell types characteristic of chitons, bivalves, gastropods, and cephalopods.
2. Explain what the markings on the inner surface of a clam shell represent.
3. Explain how water is moved through a clam for respiratory and feeding purposes.
4. Distinguish between an open and closed circulatory system.
5. Describe how a cephalopod makes use of the visceral mass of its foot and mantle cavity.
6. Distinguish among the body plans of the crustaceans, arachnids, and insects.
7. Discuss the importance of molting in the arthropod life cycle.
8. Describe the respiratory system of insects.
9. Give reasons for the success of insects.

Exercise 27: Animal Diversity: Chordates (text reference pp. 671-701)

1. Describe the distinguishing characteristics of each of the three classes of aquatic vertebrates represented by the lamprey, dogfish shark and teleost fish. In particular, you should focus on the skin, fins, teeth, and gill slits.
2. Compare amphibian and reptilian adaptations to living on land, especially adaptations found in limbs and eggs.
3. Compare a representative avian skeleton with that of a representative mammal at the level of detail presented in the lab manual. For the axial skelton, focus on the relative sizes of the skulls and vertebrae. For the appendicular skeleton, focus on homologous structures.

1. Define the term "fruit."
2. Relate fruit structure to the ovary and ovules of a flower.
3. Distinguish among aggregate, multiple, and simple fruits.
4. Identify the following fleshy fruits: berry, pome, pepo, drupe.
5. Identify the following dry fruits: follicle, legume, capsule, nut, samara, achene; and state the difference between dehiscent and indehiscent fruits.
6. Identify the parts of a monocot and dicot seed and describe the function of each. In particular, you should focus on these structures and their functions: bean seed and peanut: seed coat, cotyledons, plumule, radicle; corn seed: endosperm, embryo. Also indicate what parts of the peanut are typically eaten, and whether peanuts are monocots or dicots.
7. Describe the function of endosperm and cotyledons.
8. Identify the types of tissues formed by apical meristems and describe their location in the young root and shoot. In particular, you should be able to identify on a microscope slide these structures: root tip: root cap, apical meristem, region of elongation; stem tip: axillary bud, apical meristem, leaf primordia, vascular tissue.

Exercise 30: Water Movement in Plants (text reference pp. 743-751)

1. Describe how water transpires from the surface of a leaf.
2. Diagram a stoma and label its parts.
3. Describe how environmental conditions affect the rate of transpiration.

1. Describe and demonstrate anatomical positions for any representative vertebrate.
2. Use proper anatomical terms to describe body directions and landmarks. In particular, you should be able to use any of the terms described on pp. 37-3 and 37-4 of the lab manual.
3. Identify the major anatomical features of a bone.
4. Identify major types of joints.
5. Describe how the agonist and antagonist of antagonistic muscle pairs work to move a load.
6. Differentiate between isotonic and isometric muscle exercise, and explain what happens to bicep muscle size during each of the four movements described in Exercise D Part 1.

Exercise 38: Physiology of Circulation (text reference pp. 871-883)

1. Trace the pathway of blood through the mammalian heart, naming all structures along the path.
2. Identify the structures of a mammalian heart (on a model, drawing, or actual heart). In particular, you should be able to identify the right and left atria, right and left ventricles, the pulmonary artery, aorta, venae cavae, atrioventricular valves, and semilunar valves.
3. Determine and define systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
4. Explain why a pulse can be found only in certain parts of the body.
5. Determine the effects of moderate exercise on the pulse rate.

1. Trace the evolution of respiratory structures from ancestral bony fishes to mammals.
2. Describe the circulatory pathway of blood and respiratory gases through the gills of a fish.
3. Explain how oxygen is exchanged across the tissues of the circulatory system and lungs.
4. Describe the anatomy of the mammalian respiratory system.
5. Determine the vital capacity of your lungs.
6. Understand the relationship between tidal and reserve respiratory volumes.
7. Determine how exercise can affect respiratory rate.
8. Describe how the elevation of pulse rate is related to increasing respiratory rate.

Exercise 41: Nervous System (text reference pp. 1046-1063)

1. Determine which areas of the tongue are sensitive to specific tastes; and explain why certain substances can be tasted in one part of the tongue but not others.
2. Explain how individual differences in taste are related to food preferences; state which of four chemicals you and your lab partners find most distasteful, and the usual taste of sodium benzoate; and explain the role of the sense of smell on the sense of taste.
3. Relate the structure of the eye to its ability to perceive color, maintain peripheral vision, and compensate for the blind spot on the retina.
4. Describe the role of tactile sensory receptors in distinguishing the sensations of touch, including why some parts of the body are better able to distinguish between two close stimuli.
5. Design and execute an experiment involving some part of the sensory system.

1. Explore predation on prey inhabiting a limited area that are not replaced as they are consumed.
2. Describe how predators may be affected by the density of prey.

Exercise on Foraging Strategy

1. Describe the components of the simulation used in this exercise and explain how they represent real processes.
2. Distinguish between specialist and generalist foragers, state the advantages and disadvantages of each, and give examples of each type. Also explain how the results of your simulation may have differed if both specialists and generalists had been present.
3. Explain what animals do when food resources are depleted.
4. For this particular simulation system, explain the relative value and ease of "capture" for the following "prey": kidney beans, great Northern beans, lima beans, and lentils.
5. Explain how the simulation used in this exercise might be changed to improve the forager's success in capturing prey, and to increase the prey's chances of survival; and relate these to situations for animals and plants in real life.
6. Design and execute an experiment using the simulation system.