Biology Syllabus
Kingdoms: Protista, Fungi, and Plantae
A. 19.1 Diversity of Protists
1. Review and list the characteristics of Kingdom Protista from your kingdom characteristics chart.
2. Why are animal-like protists not in the Kingdom Animalia?
3. Why are plant-like protists not in the Kingdom Plantae?
4. Why are fungus-like protists not in the Kingdom Fungi?
5. Why will Kingdom Protista eventually be divided into many other kingdoms?
B. 19.2 Animal-like Protists (Protozoa)
6. Animal-like protists are classified based on their movement. One category of animal-like protists
is zooflagellates. List 3 characteristics of zooflagellates.
7. What is a pseudopod? List 3 characteristics of amoebas.
6. List 3 characteristics and examples of ciliates.
7. Sketch and label the ciliate, Paramecium.
8. Name and list the function of each labeled structure (from #7)
7. Paramecia often live in hypotonic environments. How do paramecia survive in a hypotonic
environment?
8. Many sporozoan protists cause disease. List 3 characteristics of sporozoans and name some
examples.
9. Briefly describe how Plasmodium causes disease in humans.
C. 19.3 Plant-like Protists
10. What is algae?
11. What is phytoplankton? What is the importance of phytoplankton to ecology?
12. Sketch and label a Euglena. How is Euglena similar and different from Paramecium?
13. The term dinoflagellate comes from the Greek word “dinos”, meaning, whirling. How do they
whirl? How did the Noctiluna get its name?
14. Some dinoflagellates are harmful. How?
15. Why are diatoms preserved so well in the fossil record?
16. List some food products that are made from red algae.
17. Chylamydomonas is a single celled green algae which has a life cycle that alternates between a
sexual phase and an asexual phase (alternation of generations). Briefly describe each phase.
D. 19.4 Fungus-like Protists
18. What is the role of fungus-like protists in the environment?
19. Read about the potato blight on p.570. What organism caused this situation? Where and when
did this occur? Describe what happened as a result of this organism.
E. 19.5 Kingdom Fungi
20. What is the largest organism in the world? How large? What is the estimated number of
different fungal species?
21. How are fungi different from plants?
22. Sketch, label, and define the functions of the parts of a multicellular fungus. p. 571
23. What is meant by “cytoplasmic flow” in fungi? How is cytoplasmic flow beneficial to the
fungus?
24. List some food sources for fungi. How do they obtain nutrients from their food?
25. Define mycorrhizae. Explain the symbiotic relationship.
26. Yeast are single celled fungi. Explain how they reproduce asexually and sexually.
27. Review the life cycles of club fungi and bread mold. How are they similar and different?
28. Some fungi reproduce sexually only when environmental conditions are harsh. What is the
advantage of sexual reproduction in terms of diversity?
29. Briefly describe the advantage of spores and spore formation in fungi.
F. 19.6 Ecology of Fungi
30. Describe an example of how fungi that are decomposers are helpful and sometimes harmful.
31. Describe the relationship between taking antibiotics for a bacterial infection and fungal infection
in humans.
32. Give an example of how fungi are harmful to plants.
33. Define lichen, sketch and label the organisms.
34. Some antifungal medications can damage the patients own tissues. Why doesn’t this problem
occur with antibiotics? (Think in terms of prokaryote vs eukaryote)
G. 20.1, 20.2, 20.3 Plant Diversity
35. List 4 characteristics of plants
36. What kind of organism did the first plants evolve from?
37. List four adaptation on land plants p.593
38. Describe the role of the cuticle and stomata in retaining moisture.
39. Transporting Resources: Taller plants must be able to transport water and throughout the
plant body. Briefly describe the structure and function of the vascular system in plants. Do
mosses (low to the ground) require a vascular system?
40. Reproducing on Land: What is a pollen grain? What is a seed? How are these reproductive
structures transported?
41. Plants evolve with other organisms in their environment. Describe a mutualistic relationship
between a plant and an animal.
42. Create a simple cladogram of the four major plant groups, Mosses, Ferns, Cone-bearing
(Gymnosperm), and flowering (Angiosperm). Place the following derived characters on the
cladogram: vascular tissue, seeds, seeds within fruits
43. List three advantages of seed bearing plants. p.600
44. What is pollination?
45. What is the function of a flower? Function of a fruit (p.602, 604, 605)?
46. What is a cotyledon?
47. Botanists classify flowering plants into two groups based on seed type: monocots, and dicots.
Make a T-chart and list the features of each group.
H. 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 21.4 Plant Structure and Function
48. Plant cells: List and describe the function of the parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma
cells in plants
49. Plant tissues: List and describe the function of the dermal, ground and vascular tissues in plants
50. Vascular system – located in the roots, stems, and leaves: What is the function of the xylem?
Sketch and label the tracheid and vessel element cells of the xylem
51. Study figure 2.2 p. 622. Three forces assist in water flow up a plant, against the force of gravity.
Name and describe each (cohesion, adhesion, and transpiration)
52. What is the function of the phloem? What two cell types (living) compose the phloem?
53. The pressure flow model explains how sugars move through a plant from source to sink. What is
a source? What is a sink?
54. Study figure 2.4 p. 624. Briefly explain how sugars move from source to sink in the phloem.
55. Make a “Plant Organs” chart and list the basic functions of roots, stems and leaves.
56. Roots: Sketch a root, label he vascular cylinder, root hairs, root cap, and meristem. Define the
function next to each label.
57. Stems: p.628 Sketch the difference between the arrangements of vascular bundles in monocot
plants vs. dicot.
58. Stems: What is the difference between primary and secondary growth? Which type of growth is
responsible for tree rings?
59. Leaves: Label the leaf diagram handout. List the function next to each labeled structure: Guard
cells, Stoma, cuticle, upper and lower epidermis, palisade mesophyll, spongy mesophyll, xylem,
phloem
60. Leaf adaptations: Not all leaves are “leafy”. Describe four examples of unique leaf adaptations
p.641
I. 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.5 Plant Life Cycles
61. Study figure 1.1 p.630 “Alternation of generations” Make a T-chart and list the differences
between the sporophyte and gametophyte phase.
62. What does the sporophyte generation begin with? What does the gametophyte generation begin
with?
63. Life cycle of a nonvascular plant (Moss) Study figure 1.2 p.641 and notice the structural
differences between the sporophyte and gametophyte phases. The sporophyte generation in
mosses will only form if _________ is present.
64. Life cycle of a simple vascular plant (Fern) Study figure 1.3 on p.642. About how large is a
prothallus? What is the structure of the sporophyte generation in ferns? Where do the spores
form?
65. Life cycle of a seed plant (Gymnosperm - Cone) Study figure 1.4 p.643 What structures of a
pine tree are part of the gametophyte generation? What structures are part of the sporophyte
generation? Why do the scales of the female pine cones secrete a sticky substance?
66. Label the flower parts diagram (handout) List the function of each structure: Sepal, petal,
stamen, carpel, ovary
67. Describe what is happening in figure 2.2 p. 645. Why is animal pollination more efficient than
wind pollination? Explain the difference between self-pollination and cross-pollination.
68. Life cycle of a seed plant (Angiosperm – Flowering) Study figure 2.3 p.647.
Translate this into a sentence diagram, starting with the male and female gametophyte in step 1.
69. What is double fertilization? What is the function of the endosperm?
70. In flowering plants, the ovule becomes a ___________ and the ovary becomes ___________.
71. List examples of structural differences among fruits that are dispersed by wind and fruits that are
dispersed by animals. Which method of dispersal may spread seeds the farthest?
72. What is the difference between seed dormancy and seed germination?
Activity: Gravitropism in Seeds – see handout provided
73. Plant hormones and responses: Plants respond to their environment through the production
and transport of hormones. What is a hormone? P.656
74. Develop a data table to compare the following plant hormones: gibberellins, ethylene,
cytokinins, and auxins. Include a column for the hormone name and its function. P.656-657
75. A tropism is a plant response to an environmental stimulus. What is the difference between
phototropism, thigmotropism, and gravitropism?
Activity: Plant Stations