BIOL 2030 UPDATED 2026 EXAM SCRIPT QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Ecosystem services - ✔✔Functions that natural systems carry out that are essential
to humans
✔✔Examples of ecosystem services - ✔✔- Water purification
- Air purification
- Nutrient cycling
- Pollination
- Breakdown of organic waste
✔✔Resource consumption - ✔✔- Use of natural resources and ecosystem services by
humans
- May deplete resources or degrade services
- Human population growth increases our impact
✔✔Ecological footprint - ✔✔Expression of the area of productive land and water
needed to supply resources and mitigate wastes for an individual or population
✔✔Sustainability - ✔✔- Using only as many natural resources as can be replenished
- Producing only as much waste as the earth can reclaim
- Leaving resources and a healthy environment for future generations
- Making sure that other organisms are also maintained
- Making sure that functioning ecosystems are maintained
✔✔Matter - ✔✔Anything that has mass and occupies space; Solids, liquids, and gases
✔✔Chemistry - ✔✔Study of matter and how different matter interacts
✔✔Law of Conservation of Matter - ✔✔Matter cannot be created or destroyed but it may
change forms
✔✔Element - ✔✔Pure substance that can't be broken down into other substances
- 92 that occur in nature
- 20+ created in lab
- The most common elements are Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Silicon and Nitrogen (O,
C, H, Si, N)
, ✔✔Atom - ✔✔Smallest unit of an element that retain the chemicals properties of the
element
- Made up of protons and neutrons in nucleus and electrons around the nucleus
- All atoms of an element have the same number of protons (atomic number)
✔✔Protons - ✔✔Positively charged particles
✔✔Neutrons - ✔✔No charge
✔✔Electrons - ✔✔Negatively charged particles
✔✔Mass number = ______ + ____ - ✔✔# protons + # neutrons
✔✔Isotopes - ✔✔Atoms of a particular element that have differing numbers of neutrons
✔✔Radioisotope - ✔✔Isotope that sheds sub-atomic particles and emits radiation as it
"decays"; not stable
- Each radioisotope has a rate of decay; rate is determined by "half life"
- Used in nuclear devices and power plants but also in medicine
✔✔Half life - ✔✔The amount of time it takes for ½ of the atoms to give off radiation
✔✔Ion - ✔✔Atom that gains or loses electrons and therefore is no longer neutral
✔✔Atoms that lose electrons become ______ - ✔✔Positively-charged ions
✔✔Atoms that gain electrons become ______ - ✔✔Negatively-charged ions
✔✔Molecules - ✔✔Two or more atoms bonded together
- May be same or different element
✔✔Compound - ✔✔A molecule composed of atoms of two or more different atoms
✔✔Bonding - ✔✔Attraction of atoms to one another's electrons holds them together
✔✔Covalent bonds - ✔✔Electrons are shared between atoms
✔✔Ionic bonds - ✔✔Electrons transferred from one atom to another, creating ions;
atoms held together due to differing electrical charges
✔✔Polar Covalent - ✔✔Covalently-bonded where O attracts shared electrons more
than H, resulting in a positive end and a negative end
ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Ecosystem services - ✔✔Functions that natural systems carry out that are essential
to humans
✔✔Examples of ecosystem services - ✔✔- Water purification
- Air purification
- Nutrient cycling
- Pollination
- Breakdown of organic waste
✔✔Resource consumption - ✔✔- Use of natural resources and ecosystem services by
humans
- May deplete resources or degrade services
- Human population growth increases our impact
✔✔Ecological footprint - ✔✔Expression of the area of productive land and water
needed to supply resources and mitigate wastes for an individual or population
✔✔Sustainability - ✔✔- Using only as many natural resources as can be replenished
- Producing only as much waste as the earth can reclaim
- Leaving resources and a healthy environment for future generations
- Making sure that other organisms are also maintained
- Making sure that functioning ecosystems are maintained
✔✔Matter - ✔✔Anything that has mass and occupies space; Solids, liquids, and gases
✔✔Chemistry - ✔✔Study of matter and how different matter interacts
✔✔Law of Conservation of Matter - ✔✔Matter cannot be created or destroyed but it may
change forms
✔✔Element - ✔✔Pure substance that can't be broken down into other substances
- 92 that occur in nature
- 20+ created in lab
- The most common elements are Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Silicon and Nitrogen (O,
C, H, Si, N)
, ✔✔Atom - ✔✔Smallest unit of an element that retain the chemicals properties of the
element
- Made up of protons and neutrons in nucleus and electrons around the nucleus
- All atoms of an element have the same number of protons (atomic number)
✔✔Protons - ✔✔Positively charged particles
✔✔Neutrons - ✔✔No charge
✔✔Electrons - ✔✔Negatively charged particles
✔✔Mass number = ______ + ____ - ✔✔# protons + # neutrons
✔✔Isotopes - ✔✔Atoms of a particular element that have differing numbers of neutrons
✔✔Radioisotope - ✔✔Isotope that sheds sub-atomic particles and emits radiation as it
"decays"; not stable
- Each radioisotope has a rate of decay; rate is determined by "half life"
- Used in nuclear devices and power plants but also in medicine
✔✔Half life - ✔✔The amount of time it takes for ½ of the atoms to give off radiation
✔✔Ion - ✔✔Atom that gains or loses electrons and therefore is no longer neutral
✔✔Atoms that lose electrons become ______ - ✔✔Positively-charged ions
✔✔Atoms that gain electrons become ______ - ✔✔Negatively-charged ions
✔✔Molecules - ✔✔Two or more atoms bonded together
- May be same or different element
✔✔Compound - ✔✔A molecule composed of atoms of two or more different atoms
✔✔Bonding - ✔✔Attraction of atoms to one another's electrons holds them together
✔✔Covalent bonds - ✔✔Electrons are shared between atoms
✔✔Ionic bonds - ✔✔Electrons transferred from one atom to another, creating ions;
atoms held together due to differing electrical charges
✔✔Polar Covalent - ✔✔Covalently-bonded where O attracts shared electrons more
than H, resulting in a positive end and a negative end
