BIOL 180 Midterm Exam Assessment With
Revised ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS &
CORRECT ANSWERS.
1. What is the difference between a hypothesis and a prediction?
ANSWER/✓ A hypothesis is an idea; a prediction is something that follows
from a hypothesis and that you can measure
2. How do biologists test their ideas about the natural world?
ANSWER/✓ Scientists make predictions based on hypotheses they have
developed and design experiments to test those predictions
3. Why is it important to perform multiple trials in an experiment – meaning
that you use many test individuals or samples?
ANSWER/✓ To make it more likely that the results are not due to a few
unusual individuals or circumstances
4. Researchers do an experiment to test the hypothesis that Douglas fir trees
put more energy into reproduction when they are infected with a fungus
that causes a fatal disease. They establish study plots in a group of 50-year-
old Douglas fir where the disease is not present. At random, they infect half
the trees with the disease-causing fungus. Then they measure how many
cones and seeds are produced by infected versus uninfected trees. What
prediction follows from the hypothesis?
ANSWER/✓ The infected trees will produce more seeds than uninfected
trees
5. Which treatment would be considered the control?
ANSWER/✓ The uninfected trees
Revised ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS &
CORRECT ANSWERS.
1. What is the difference between a hypothesis and a prediction?
ANSWER/✓ A hypothesis is an idea; a prediction is something that follows
from a hypothesis and that you can measure
2. How do biologists test their ideas about the natural world?
ANSWER/✓ Scientists make predictions based on hypotheses they have
developed and design experiments to test those predictions
3. Why is it important to perform multiple trials in an experiment – meaning
that you use many test individuals or samples?
ANSWER/✓ To make it more likely that the results are not due to a few
unusual individuals or circumstances
4. Researchers do an experiment to test the hypothesis that Douglas fir trees
put more energy into reproduction when they are infected with a fungus
that causes a fatal disease. They establish study plots in a group of 50-year-
old Douglas fir where the disease is not present. At random, they infect half
the trees with the disease-causing fungus. Then they measure how many
cones and seeds are produced by infected versus uninfected trees. What
prediction follows from the hypothesis?
ANSWER/✓ The infected trees will produce more seeds than uninfected
trees
5. Which treatment would be considered the control?
ANSWER/✓ The uninfected trees
