Week 8 · Module overview

Week 8 — Midterm Review & Exam

Introduction to Biology Free sample edition

Why this matters

A baker timing a rising dough and a nursing student tracking how the body's cells use oxygen both lean on this week's move: say what happens first, next, and last, and where each step happens.

In plain language

This week you look back over the first seven weeks of the course and pull them into one picture before the midterm. Each topic asks you for one key distinction (a pair of ideas that students tend to swap) and one ordered process (a set of steps that only works in one order). You will rerun the examples you already know, from a penny holding drops of water to spinach leaves floating in the light. You will also learn one new habit, the order-and-location habit (for any process, name the steps in order and the place in the cell where each step runs). That habit is how biologists keep a busy process straight, and the second half of the course leans on it.

Already covered: the method, chemistry, molecules, the cell, enzymes, respiration, and photosynthesis (Weeks 1 to 7).
This week: one distinction and one ordered process per topic, the order-and-location habit, and the midterm.
How they connect: the habit grows from the ordered chains of Weeks 6 and 7.
Where we're going next: Week 9, The Cell Cycle & Mitosis, a process with its own stages.

Focus

For each topic so far, what pair of ideas must you keep apart, and what steps must you keep in order and in place?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

[ ] state the key distinction and ordered process for each of Weeks 1 to 7
[ ] rerun the course's worked examples with every step shown
[ ] name each stage of respiration and photosynthesis with its compartment

To-do

Plan your week

Read Chapter 8 (about 35 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
Do the practice set (about 20 minutes) and the discussion (about 45 minutes).
Use the study guide and practice exam, then take the midterm.

This week's checkpoint: say one process in order, with the place each stage runs.

You've got this

You have done this work already. Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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