Questions for teachers interviews in Biology

1- What is homeostasis and how is it important to human life?

To keep balanced internal environment in the body, staying alive is a matter of balance any
distraction in this balance will lead to disease.
2- How can you explain the fluid mosaic model for plasma membrane?
a- Explain framework of phospholipid bilayer giving the detailed structure of the phospholipid
“polar head and non polar tail” that is arranged in double layer with hydrophilic head facing
the inside and outside of the cell and the hydrophobic tail forming the middle layer.
b- Describe 6 different types of protein imbedded in the phospholipid bilayer; “Channel
proteins, carrier proteins, cell recognition proteins, receptor proteins, enzyme proteins,
junction proteins”.
c- Cholesterol found between the non-polar tails of phospholipids to modify fluidity of the
membrane over a range of temperatures.
d- Carbohydrate chains that are called glycolipids and glycoprotein.

Use different visuals and videos to show these components to the students.

3- Explain how polar water molecules can easily move across the non polar plasma membrane?
Water molecules are small in size slot in between non polar tails during their continuous motion
and move due to osmotic pressure across the cell membrane.
4- A flower generates heat in order to attract insects. Why might the flower break down a sugar
and not ATP to produce heat?
By breaking one sugar molecule through cellular respiration 38 ATP molecules can be produced
to provide heat.
5- What is Cystic Fibrosis?
Recessive autosomal disorder caused by heredity due to a faulty protein that is supposed to
regulate the flow of chloride ions into and out of cells through a channel protein.
6- In a mutant strain of Escherichia coli, lactose fails to bind to the repressor on the operator
portion of the lac operon. What is likely to be the result of this failure?
The failure of lactose to bind to and remove the repressor will prevent the lac operon from
functioning. As a result, RNA polymerase will not transcribe the lactose-metabolizing genes of
the lac operon, and the enzymes that normally break down lactose will not be produced, even
though lactose is present in the environment.
7- Describe how some bacterial populations develop resistance to antibiotics over time.
Portions of DNA in a bacterial cell can move from one cell to another. If one bacterial cell has a
mutation or change that allows it to resist antibiotics, it can transfer this genetic resistance to
other bacteria. When the antibiotic kills the rest of the bacteria, only the resistant cells remain.
These cells reproduce to create whole populations of bacteria that are resistant to the
antibiotics.
8- Why is embryology useful in determining the evolutionary history of a species?
Because it reveals similar patterns and structures that may indicate a shared evolutionary
history
9- What does it mean to say that natural selection does not act directly on genes, but is limited
to acting upon phenotypes? It is an individual’s genetic makeup that determines the phenotype.
Natural selection “selects” an individual who has the most adaptive characteristics, or
phenotype, thus indirectly eliminating less adaptive genotypes.
10- While walking through a forest, you notice that someone has carved initials into the bark of a
tree. The initials are exactly 1.5 meters from the ground. How far from the grounds will the
initials be next year and the year after that? Why? Discuss growth tissues in plants in your
answer.
The initials will be exactly 1.5 meters from the ground no matter how much the tree grows.
Meristems (growth tissues) at the tips of roots and shoots enable plants to increase in length.
Secondary-growth meristems cause plant bodies to thicken. The initials will get wider but not
higher.
11- Do arteries carry oxygenated blood or deoxygenated blood? Explain.
An artery is a blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart. Most arteries carry
oxygenated blood, but some arteries carry deoxygenated blood. The pulmonary arteries, which
carry blood from the heart to the lungs, carry deoxygenated blood that has been returned to the
heart from the rest of the body. The arteries that carry blood from the heart to the rest of the
body carry oxygenated blood that has been returned to the heart from the lungs.
12- What part of the peripheral nervous system prevents you from holding your breath
indefinitely? Explain.
The autonomic nervous system carries messages to muscles and glands that usually work
without our noticing and enables the nervous system to maintain homeostasis within the body.
We have involuntary control over some functions, such as breathing, that are regulated by the
autonomic nervous system. Any voluntary control of the autonomic nervous system that
endangers life disturbs the homeostasis of the brain tissue, causing unconsciousness. Then the
autonomic nervous system takes over and restores normal functioning—in this case, breathing.