AP Biology Practice 3 - Formulate Questions

Main ideas & concepts (what the video teaches)

• Scientific thinking starts with good questions.

  • The speaker contrasts older science habits (knowing/looking up facts in libraries) with modern science (having data available easily).
  • The argument: the ability to formulate strong questions is now crucial.

• Good scientific questions should:

  • Be answerable with scientific methods/data
  • Lead to discussion and further investigation
  • Allow you to identify clear independent variables (what you change) and dependent variables (what you measure)
  • Avoid vague or untestable claims that can’t be measured empirically

• Students may ask higher-level questions only once they truly understand the topic.

  • If they don’t understand, they may not be able to form a good question at all.

Examples of question quality (and why)

• Not a strong AP Biology scientific question (too factual / no investigation):

  • “What’s the world’s smallest living bird?”
  • Google gives a quick factual answer; it doesn’t drive experimentation.

• Not a strong scientific question (currently unanswerable):

  • “Are we alone in the universe?”
  • Profound, but not scientifically answerable with the technology that we have today.

• Not a strong scientific question (value-laden / not empirically measurable):

  • “Are genetically modified foods good or bad?”
  • “Good” and “bad” depend on value judgments and can’t be measured empirically as stated.

• Better direction, but needs refinement (too broad):

  • “What factors effect plant growth?”
  • “Factors” is too many and unspecified—requires narrowing.

• Strong scientific question (narrowed, testable):

  • Example refinement:
    • “What’s the optimum carbon dioxide concentration for Brassica rapa growth?”
  • Focus:
    • Independent variable: CO₂ concentration
    • Dependent variable: Brassica rapa growth

• AP-style example of a strong question:

  • “What happens to photosynthesis at very high non-biological temperatures?”
  • Clearly testable by varying temperature and measuring photosynthesis (e.g., a leaf disk/chad flotation lab is mentioned).

How good questions connect to AP Biology “big ideas” (four domains)

The speaker indicates that AP prompts questions across major themes, including:

• Evolution: Use phylogenetic trees to ask questions about relationships.
• Free energy: Predict molecular movement (e.g., facilitated diffusion).
• Genetics / proteins: Ask what happens if you change a protein and how that affects protein function.
• Ethics (conditional): For example, if you have a particular gene, what implications might there be for having children (presented as an “ethical questions” extension).
• Systems (interactive): For example, food webs—what happens if you change one component (like decreasing producers and impacting consumers).

The core skills required (3-step questioning skillset)

To answer AP Biology questions, you must be able to:

1. Pose/come up with scientific questions
2. Refine scientific questions
3. Evaluate scientific questions

Detailed methodology/instruction-style bullet points (as presented)

A) Pose scientific questions (example task)

• Given a phylogenetic tree of life (three domains: Eukarya, Archaea, Bacteria):
  • Generate three good questions answerable using:
    • the tree itself and/or
    • background knowledge
• Example posed questions:
  • “Which of these are more related to eukarya: archaea or bacteria?”
  • “What characteristics of archaea, bacteria, and eukarya allowed scientists to produce such a tree?”
    • (The second example implies a single last universal common ancestor.)

B) Refine scientific questions (example task)

• Given an experiment graph: algal growth over time in sterilized pond water, with phosphate added at a certain point.
• Task: Which prediction best fits growth if nitrate (instead of phosphate) is added?
• Logic taught:
  • Identify the concept of a limiting nutrient.
  • If phosphate is the nutrient needed for growth at that time, then:
    • adding nitrate would not increase growth.
• Emphasized correct answer:
  • No significant growth change when nitrate is added (described as “C” in the video).
• Analogy used (movie/car keys):
  • If you already have what you need (car keys), extra money won’t help much—the missing requirement is what matters—same idea as limiting nutrient.

C) Evaluate scientific questions (example task)

• Based on Stanley Miller / Miller-Urey experiment:
  • They modeled early Earth conditions with gases + energy to see if life-essential building blocks could form.
• Question: which option best matches the experiment’s intended question?
• Key evaluation point:
  • The Miller-Urey goal was to test whether molecules essential to life today could have formed under early Earth conditions.
• Emphasized correct answer:
  • Option “C” (as stated in the video).

Overall lesson: why questioning matters

• Asking good questions is described as the first “domino” in a chain:
  • Practice 3 (Formulate/ask questions) → Practice 4 (Develop experimentation) → Data analysis → Explanations and theories
• Therefore, improving questioning directly supports later scientific practices and success on the AP exam.

Speakers / sources featured

• Mr. Andersen (speaker)
• AP Biology / College Board (referenced as the source of practice exam-style questions)
• Stanley Miller (in the Miller-Urey experiment)