Ecology B/C

[Paradox21]

where can you find the nationals test from last year?

Div. C and Div. B But it costs money and it includes a lot of other national tests from last year. For the C div. test it seemed like pretty standard stuff. Except a few questions about weird stuff like conservation legislation and hydrofracking. For most, it is wise to just learn all the basic principles and understand how the biomes work. That alone can get you a very good result.

[Liv]

My partner and I are going over the regionals test. We have a question, what is good example and definition of Carbon Sequestration?

[Paradox21]

Carbon sequestration is when carbon is artificially stored to reduce global warming. The main idea is that if you take CO2, which is a greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere you can lessen the greenhouse effect and global warming. The methods proposed are taking CO2 and dissolving it into the ocean. The ocean naturally holds a lot of CO2, but recently the levels of dissolved CO2 have been rising, which isn't surprising because there is also more CO2 in the atmosphere. Now having incredibly high CO2 levels in the ocean would also be a bad idea because it causes the ocean to become more acidic. Another, more ironic method is to pump CO2 back into the earth. For example into empty oil holes (which are partially to blame for the CO2 in the 1st place) where it can be sealed off from the surrounding atmosphere. Smarter methods might be reforestation or algal farms that will convert the atmospheric CO2 into O2. I personally like the idea of algal farms because in addition to using CO2, there has been some research into using algae to produce commercially available ethanol. So we could actually convert CO2 into energy you could use to run a car or something.

[Liv]

Carbon sequestration is when carbon is artificially stored to reduce global warming. The main idea is that if you take CO2, which is a greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere you can lessen the greenhouse effect and global warming. The methods proposed are taking CO2 and dissolving it into the ocean. The ocean naturally holds a lot of CO2, but recently the levels of dissolved CO2 have been rising, which isn't surprising because there is also more CO2 in the atmosphere. Now having incredibly high CO2 levels in the ocean would also be a bad idea because it causes the ocean to become more acidic. Another, more ironic method is to pump CO2 back into the earth. For example into empty oil holes (which are partially to blame for the CO2 in the 1st place) where it can be sealed off from the surrounding atmosphere. Smarter methods might be reforestation or algal farms that will convert the atmospheric CO2 into O2. I personally like the idea of algal farms because in addition to using CO2, there has been some research into using algae to produce commercially available ethanol. So we could actually convert CO2 into energy you could use to run a car or something.

Thanks! That helped alot! Guess we have to put that on our note sheet!

[sewforlife]

Hey, I was just wondering, I've been studying all of the basics and a bit more for Eco, and I'm wondering, in nationals, what will some problem questions be, that are more unique/some people have never seen them (that I should prepare for, maybe with notes on my cheat sheet)?

[paleonaps]

Hey, I was just wondering, I've been studying all of the basics and a bit more for Eco, and I'm wondering, in nationals, what will some problem questions be, that are more unique/some people have never seen them (that I should prepare for, maybe with notes on my cheat sheet)?

When I did last year's national test, I saw a lot of speciemens. Like a taxidermied coyote.

[Paradox21]

Interesting, was the B div national test a stations test? Or did they just put the coyote in the front of the room or something? The C div test was a pretty conventional written test.

[paleonaps]

Interesting, was the B div national test a stations test? Or did they just put the coyote in the front of the room or something? The C div test was a pretty conventional written test.

Well, I wasn't there, so don't quote me, but from what I saw it was excruciatingly long stations, some of which centered near specimens or other things they didn't bother to put into the test packet.

[maggymay]

Interesting, was the B div national test a stations test? Or did they just put the coyote in the front of the room or something? The C div test was a pretty conventional written test.

Well, I wasn't there, so don't quote me, but from what I saw it was excruciatingly long stations, some of which centered near specimens or other things they didn't bother to put into the test packet.

Oh, lovely....

[w0607858]

The first thing that really gets me at this event is that even if you studied 24/7 on this event (no sleep included); if the proctors of the test decide to stray from the basic concepts (that pretty much everybody who passed grade school already should have a good grasp of) to a more complex branch of Ecology, you could still be caught utterly unawares due to the colossal proportions of this subject. There are millions of ways you could study, and depending on the test thrown; 999,999 of those ways could be utterly wrong (for example you worked your hind end raw studying Disease Ecology and the test is centered on stuffed Specimens). Thus the point that it is better to study a little bit (meaning as much as you can humanely cram without driving yourself insane) of everything than focus innately on one particular part. Hope this helps.

....Oh yeah; and that one sheet of paper they're giving you to put down everything that you couldn't learn in time? It's going to be your new best friend.