Essay paragraphs based on questions
Instructions answer 10 questions below. Your answers should be at least two paragraphs in
length
1. Carbon cycles through the ecosystem between the atmosphere, organisms (such as producers,
herbivores, and carnivores), and decomposers. This natural cycle maintains a somewhat
constant level of carbon in the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon into the
cycle that has been trapped inside the earth. How does this affect the cycle and what problems
can this cause?
2. Using Darwin’s reasoning, explain how four species of lizards, all closely related, came to be
separate species on a Caribbean island.
3. During interphase the DNA is not visible through a microscope; it only becomes visible as
chromosomes during mitosis. Why isn’t the DNA visible during interphase and why would this
be the case?
4. How is it that, in meiosis, you can end up with four “daughter cells†that are all genetically
different from one another?
5. Use Punnett squares to illustrate whether a type A female and a type B male can have a child
with type O blood.
6. Your friend Gorinda wants to know if there are ever mutations that don’t cause problems. What
do you tell him?
7. Compare DNA to a cookbook. The book is kept in a library and cannot be checked out
(removed). Start with the letters and words in the cookbook compared with the bases and
codons in DNA; end with the amino acid chain being folded into a protein, and a cake being
baked.
8. Your friend Thomas wants to know why scientists can’t just take the egg cell, with its own
nucleus intact, and shock it to begin cell division. How do you answer him?
9. A very heavy rainstorm floods a mountain river, changing its course and digging a deep canyon
through the soft soils of the meadow in the valley below. What happens to the mice on either
side of the valley?
10. Given the amount of sunlight that hits the plants on our planet, and the ability of plants for rapid
growth and reproduction, how come we aren’t all hip deep in dead plants?you are also encouraged to draw from other resources and experiences in crafting your answers, where appropriate.
