Final Exam

Final Exam

1 Final Exam Instructions: This is an open-book final exam worth a total of 50 points. Your answers will be graded based on accuracy, completeness, clarity of expression, and insight. Write in your own words. If you do draw on outside sources to help support your answers, be sure to provide proper citation. Because not all computers share similar software, it is important to format your written work as either a Word document or as an .RTF file. The final exam is due by midnight Friday of Week 8. This exam is to be uploaded in Blackboard, through the Final Exam submission link and the exam will be submitted through SafeAssign. Questions: 1. As discussed in Unit 1 of this course, all religions provide answers to a set of big fundamental questions. The most important are:  What is god/divine and what is it like?  Where did the world and people come from and what are they like?  What is the problem of life?  What is the solution to the problem?  What is the reward/afterlife? The different religions provide different answers to these questions; some are similar, some are very dissimilar. For this question, create a document that correctly captures how each of the six religions that we have studied this semester answer each of these big questions. Do not over write. You should be able to summarize each answer in no more than a couple of sentences. (30 pts.) 2. Because of time limits and the sheer bulk of information, the typical class on world religions largely presents religion as a thing-in-itself, isolated from the rest of social, cultural, and political life. But is this reality? Are religion and society related? If not, why not? If so, give examples of a real events or situations that illustrate the relationship between religion and society. (10 pts.) 3. Over the course of these eight weeks, you have had a chance to study a range of different religions. Now that you have done so, would you say that religions are more alike than they are different, or more different than they are alike? Provide concrete examples to illustrate whichever perspective you take. Also, how would you respond to the typical conversation that says, on the one hand, that this or that specific religion is the only true way, and, on the other hand, that there might be truth in other religions? Finally, what does your answer imply about the chances for peaceful coexistence among the world’s religions? (10 pts.)

final exam

final exam

1-     Many populations of organisms undergo a bottleneck, which can have detrimental effects on a population. Define a population bottleneck and identify a particular circumstance in nature when a population bottleneck occurs.  Provide a real-life example of a population that has experienced a bottleneck. Next, discuss generally at least two deleterious genetic effects of a bottleneck and why they can be harmful to populations. Finally, consider why a population might NOT suffer the deleterious effects of a bottleneck that you identified. 

 

2-     Speciation may occur via two primary modes – sympatry or allopatry.  Describe TWO different ways that speciation can occur within each mode.  Include the role of natural selection and reproductive isolating mechanisms in your explanation for each, and how they contribute to not only the production of the species, but the maintenance of it.  Then address why it may be difficult to decide whether or not an organismal group is truly a separate species. 

 

3-     Identify a natural event which can cause primary succession to occur and a natural event which can cause secondary succession to occur.  In each respective scenario, discuss the process of vegetation change following the succession events and contrast the two processes. In your answer include the role of AT LEAST two of the following ecological interactions – competition, predation or mutualism, for both primary and secondary succession. 

 

 

4-     Throughout the semester we have discussed the vulnerabilities of populations that are a small size.  In the context of the extinction vortex, describe and explain four spirals that make small populations increasingly vulnerable to extinction, and provide a real-life example for each.  Your answer should include at least TWO mechanisms of evolution other than natural selection that play a role, and how conservation status or policy may mitigate or exacerbate the vulnerability. 

 

 

The answers should be outstanding, strong synthesis and details, well written, the reader should have clear understanding of the responses