SCIENCE 11

Oral Transmission

telling stories, chanting, and music

Experiential Transmission

direct teaching of hunting and gathering

hunters, gatherers, and farmers

Who facilitated experiential transmission?

elders and storytellers

Who facilitated oral transmission?

Elders

They are esteemed for their knowledge, and the knowledgable among them are required to perform special roles.

Storyteller

Given with the ability to tell stories in a memorable, engaging way, they perform an important teaching function in the life of a tribe; for stories, myths, and legends are how the tribe’s experiences are recorded and stored.

Hunter

Their knowledge of wildlife, capacity to read the slightest of signs, and the capability to create tools and weapons, teach the knowledge of the environment without words.

Gatherer

Has the knowledge of fruits, animals, and herbs with their uses

Farmer

Bears the knowledge of the seasons and the signs of the wind and sky.

Indigenous Knowledge, Systems, and Practices

These are traditional knowledge passed on through traditional means for generations. They are products of carefully and methodologically sound observations of the natural world and have been tested and re-tested in the most rigorous laboratories for survival and well-being.

Biocultural knowledge

The intimate knowledge of the interplay among elements in the local living systems give rise to many applications which have been validated by indigenous knowledge systems as well as modern scientific methods. This knowledge is rooted both in the natural environment and what is readily available, at the same time grounded on culture of the people who hold it.

Holistic Viewpoint

What is the type of viewpoint practiced by people from the ancient times/antiquity to the renaissance?

Priestly Class

The human connection to the gods were the sole interpreters of the gods’ desires, such that, they had exclusive access to the stored knowledge, and they were the only ones authorized to interpret them.

Political power

What did the priests control?

Myths, Legends, and Folklore

representations of ancient human philosophy and the community’s understanding of the natural world

Literacy

The invention of this during the period of antiquity to renaissance allowed for knowledge to be stored (retention) and for the expansion of collective knowledge beyond the Storytellers’ collective memories.

Clay tablets

Mode of literacy for Sumerians

Papyrus scrolls

Mode of literacy for Egyptians

Bamboo, bone, or wood

Modes of literacy for East Asians

Animal hide

Mode of literacy for the Mayans

Wax tablets

Mode of literacy fof the Romans

Parchment

Medium of literacy for the most of medieval Europe

Paper

Medium of literacy for the records of the Chinese empire and held copies of Qur’an.

4500 - 1750 BCE

The period where Sumerians and their knowledge of biology thrived

cuneiform

Writing system of the Sumerians

True

T/F. Sumerians’ belief system encompassed both empirical and the magical— example of how ancient civilizations sought to fathom the workings of the universe in some other manner.

800 - 300 BCE

Period of time where Greek philosophers and their theories became prevalent.

political powers

The Greeks were not connected to the priesthood but rather affianced to the ________ _______ of the time.

What is man? What is the world?

What are the two main questions that the Greeks were concerned of?

Aristotle

A philosopher said to be the first biologist in the Western tradition, with a significant portion of his work dedicated to biology. He was an avid observer of life, particularly of fishes.

The Great Chain of Being

Aristotle’s conclusion that species were fixed, immutable, and have always existed. Along with Christians’ integration of the Genesis, species are arranged in a hierarchical fashion from the inanimate, animate, to the spiritual beings.

codified

Literate cultures are able to record more. Thus, theories were more _______, and epistemologies were made explicit.

Medieval Europe

This is a society commonly characterized as feudal and hierarchical. The business of seeking and using knowledge was relegated to a select few who knew how to read and write,

monarchies and the church

The ruling class which prescribed knowledge and its interpretation during medieval Europe.

trade via Silk Road, Crusades, and colonial expansion

The primary reasons how the Europe got exposed to Near Eastern Culture

University

A resurgence of interest in gaining knowledge in Europe helped in advancing the creation of centers of learning outside the monasteries, which is called the ________.

The European Enlightenment

This is the period also dubbed as the time where hypothetico-deductive method flourished and knowledge is democratized.

Rene Descartes

The philosopher which had his ideas replace Aristotelian worldview.

The Experiments on the Generation of Insects

A piece of scientific literature written by Francisco Redi which disproved a one-held notion of spontaneous generation of living beings.

Theory on the Transmutation of Life

One of the scientific literatures that argues in accordance to evolution, that the species change as individuals relate to the environment written by Lamarck.

Reductionist Science and the growth of Biology

The era that has prevailed as the worldview for living systems in the 19th and 20th century.

Scientific method

The acceptance and eventual dominance of the hypothetico-deductive method as the __________ ________, with its materialist, mechanistic, and reductionist philosophy which analyzes a larger system by breaking it down into pieces and determining the connections between parts.

Natural History

Old term for biology during the 18th century.

Cartesian Analytical Framework

This reductionist framework led to the misuse of industrial practices causing many unforeseen consequences to the environment.

19th century

When was ecology established?

Mid-20th century

When did the concept of ecosystems emerge?

The Silent Spring

A scientific book published by Carson that explained how indiscriminate application of agricultural chemicals, pesticides, and other modern chemicals polluted our streams, damaged bird and animal populations.

Reductionist, atomistic, emphasis on parts

Characteristics of the mechanistic worldview

Holistic, organismic and ecological, emphasis on the whole

Characteristics of the systemic worldview

Scientific paradigm

The constellation of achievements, concepts, values, etc. shared and used by the scientific community. Examples are the evolution theory and reductionist philosophy.

Paradigm shifts

Shifts, and revolutionary breaks. From mechanistic to a holistic/ecological worldview.

Elements or structures, interconnections or interactions, and function or purpose

What are the components (and their synonyms) within a system?

System

Defined as interconnected elements coherently organized and harmoniously functioning for a specific goal or output.

Law of specialization

A law that explains that the more highly adapted an organism is to a specific environment, the more difficult it is for the organism to adapt to a different environment.

Man-made system

A type of system that will cease to exist without human assistance. Examples are agrosystem, Computer System, Artificial Intelligence, Political System, and Telecommunication System.

Natural system

Type of system that exists in nature.

Physical system

A classification of natural system that encompasses stellar, geological, and nanosystems.

Living system

A classification of natural system that encompasses all biological systems.

system-ness

According to Meadow, what is lost when a living creature dies?

Abiotic components and biotic components

What are the two main components of biosystems?

Emergent properties

Living systems are organized into hierarchies with progressive specialization of functions and complexity emerging from lower level to higher levels of organization also known as ________ _________.

Matter and energy

The two abiotic components that are involved with cells, organs, organisms, and populations.

Hierarchical theory

A convenient framework for subdividing and examining complex situations. Ascending from cells to ecosystems, it illustrates a decreasing scientific understanding.

Hierarchies

_________ are nested.

Transcending functions

The seven basic functions that operate at all levels including energetics, behavior, development, evolution, diversity, integration, and regulation.

Energy

Living systems are open systems with respect to?

Matter

Living systems are closed systems with respect to?

feedback mechanism

The living systems form this with the purpose or goal of keeping particular cycles in control.

negative feedback

A type of feedback mechanism that reduces the effect of change and helps maintain balance. This is exemplified by grazers dying in order for plants to grow back.

tragedy of the commons

An economic theory related to sustainability, wherein the “commons” (any shared and unregulated resource) gets used up (demand is high, supply is low/gone).

positive feedback

Happens when humans depart from the cycle of negative feedback. It increases the effect of change and produces instability.

Mechanical, Radiant, Sound, Chemical, Heat, Electric, Nuclear

The abbreviation MRS CHEN stands for?

T

T/F. Everything happening in a biological set-up is governed by energy.

Law of thermodynamics

The basis of the flow of energy.

Law of Conservation of Energy

Under the law of thermodynamics, this law states that the amount of energy in the universe is constant. It may be changed from one form to another but cannot be created nor destroyed.

Heat energy

Energy cannot be changed without some conversion to _____ _______, and energy flows from higher to lower levels.

Entropy or disorder

The second law of thermodynamics states that as energy is used, more and more of it is converted to heat, the energy of random molecular motion. Therefore, _______ (plus its synonym) is increasing.

2%

It is stated that only ____ of the total light striking a leaf surface is used to make food through photosynthesis.

Photoautotrophs

An organism with light as its energy source and carbon dioxide as its carbon source.

Chemoautotrophs

An organism with chemical compounds as its energy source and carbon dioxide as its carbon source.

Photoheterotrophs

An organism with light as its energy source and organic compounds as its carbon source,

Chemoheterotrophs

An organism that has chemical compounds as its energy source and organic compounds as its carbon source.

Autotrophs

The foundation of every ecosystem on Earth, forming the base of food chains and food webs, and the energy they capture from light or chemicals sustains all other organisms in the community.

Heterotrophs

Organisms that cannot capture light or chemical energy to make food and thus, mainly rely on autotrophs.

Trophic levels

Feeding level, often represented in a food chain or a food web.

Primary producers

What type of organism constitutes the bottom of the trophic level?

Consumers

What type of organisms constitute the remaining stages of the trophic levels?

10%

Only about ____ of net energy production at one trophic level is passed on to the next level because processes like respiration, growth, reproduction, etc. reduce energy flow.

high-quality food sources

Consumers convert __________ ____ _______ into new tissue more efficiently than low-quality food sources.

Decomposers

These organisms process large amounts of organic material and return nutrients to the ecosystem in inorganic form, which is then taken up again by primary producers.

Ecological pyramids

Also known as trophic pyramids, these are graphical representations designed to show relationships between energy and trophic levels in an ecosystem.

Biomass, energy, and numbers

What are the three types of ecological/trophic pyramids?

Pyramid of energy

What type of trophic pyramid is not invertible?

Pyramid of energy

What type of trophic pyramid is not invertible?

Absorb

What do decomposers do to released nutrients once they have secreted enzymes from their bodies?

Elysia chlorotica

An example of photoheterotrophs.

Bioaccumulation

This is the increase in concentration of a pollutant in an organism.

Biomagnification

This is the imcrease in concentration of a pollutant in a food chain; increased concentration of persistent, toxic substances at each trophic level, from the primary producers to the different consumer levels.

dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

A notable substance from pesticides which have been shown to accumulate in eagles and raptors in the US, causing thin-egged shells that break in their nests.