🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi, Protista members.  Like many Biology departments in 
universities
across Canada, our university, the University of New Brunswick at
Saint John, has decided to phase out the comprehensive exam in 
favour
of a proposal defense/qualifying exam as part of the requirements 
for
completion of a Ph. D.  The rationale for this, as we understand it,
is that students should not be expected to have a detailed
understanding of the entire discipline of biology.  A proposal
defense/qualifying exam is only expected to test a student on areas
relevant to their Ph. D. research.  This is a concept we support, but
it does raise the concern that students could graduate with a Ph. D.
in Biology without understanding some very basic biological 
concepts
if those concepts are not relevant to their project.  For example,
students doing research that has no explicit evolutionary context
could graduate without knowing the difference between evolution 
and
natural selection.  Our discussion group has suggested that one 
way to
deal with

The UNBSJ Ecology discussion group

A.	CHEMISTRY

1.	What is an atom?
2.	What is a molecule?
3.	What causes water to be green?
4.	What are the two laws of thermodynamics?
5.	What are the four unique properties of water?
6.	What three elements define organic compounds?
7.	What is an element?
8.	What is a protein
9.	What is a carbohydrate?
10.	What is a lipid?

B.	MOLECULAR

11.	What is DNA?
12.	What is a gene?
13.	What is natural selection?
        13b. Are evolution and natural selection synonymous terms?
14.	What is a chromosome? 15.	What are the four 
principles of
Mendelian genetics 16.	What is a genome? 17.	How is DNA 
replicated?
18.	What is epistasis? 19.	What are the sources of genetic 
variation?
20.	What is epigenesis?


C.	EVOLUTION

21.	What does the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium predict, and 
what is the
importance of the model assumptions? 22.	How have 
continents moved and
how has that affected the formation and distribution of species?
23.	What is evolution? 24.	What is the difference between 
micro and
macro-evolution? 25.	Can you read a phylogenetic tree? 26.	
What are
the kingdoms of living organisms? 27.	Finish the following 
Kingdom,
Phylum=E2=80=A6 28.	What is the =E2=80=9CEvolutionary Synthesis=E2=80=9D? =
29.	Is
evolution progressive? 30.	What comes first: the adaptation or 
the
selective pressure? 31.	What is meant by the =E2=80=9Cinheritance of
acquired traits=E2=80=9D, who made this claim, and why was he wrong?
32.	What is the object of natural selection? 33.	Are 
cladogenesis and
anagenesis synonymous terms? 34.	What is a phenotype?


D.	CELLULAR

35.	What is osmosis?
36.	What are the key differences between prokaryotes and 
eukaryotes
37.	What is mitosis and what happens during mitosis? 38.	
What is
meiosis and what happens during meiosis? 39.	What are the ? cell
organelles and what are their functions? 40.	What are the key
differences between plant and animal cells? 41.	What is a cell?


E.	ENERGY/MATTER

42.	What is photosynthesis?
43.	What is glycolysis?
44.	What is the Kreb=E2=80=99s cycle?
45.	How does energy flow and matter cycle?
46.	What is a trophic level?
47.	How does water cycle?
48.	Can you describe the cycles for key nutrients (nitrogen,
phosphorus, carbon) 49.	What is biomagnification?



F.	ECOLOGY

50.	What is the Theory of Island Biogeography?
51.	What are r and K selected life histories?
52.	What is an ecosystem?


G.	GENERAL

53.	What are Newton=E2=80=99s Laws?
54.	What are the key organs in the human body and what are 
their
functions? 55.	What are Theories, hypotheses and predictions 
and how
do they differ? 56.	What are the important plant structures and 
their
functions? 57.	What is homeostasis and why is it important? 
58.	What
is the scientific method? 59.	What is a confidence interval? 
60.	What
is an ANOVA?


Excuse the cross posting =E2=80=93 we are trying to get a diverse group of
opinions.


---
------- End of forwarded message -------Mark A. Farmer
Director, Ctr. Ultrastructural Research
151 Barrow Hall
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
(706)542-4080 Voice   (706)542-4271 FAX
farmer@cb.uga.edu  http://www.uga.edu/caur

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