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<h1 id="post-title">High-school Biology Practice</h1>
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<h1 id="test">Test</h1>
<p>Let’s test my understanding of the scientific method by trying to learn a causal model from a high school biology textbook.</p>
<p>Resource: The textbook in question is the NCERT Class XI Biology textbook.</p>
<p>Why this one? Because I know squat about biology (except for a bit about evolution) and this way I would be testing my theory and not just my own understanding, as I would be if I took up an economics textbook or a physics textbook. Also, I didn’t want to take on a college-level textbook because I might find it too hard to work with. The level of difficulty in a school textbook seems perfect: the explanations are easy, and yet you can have challenging questions like in the long-answer exam questions.</p>
<p>Most importantly, you have tons of solved problems for each chapter, and hardcore exams too. I can get plenty of feedback about my understanding. The problem with the psychology textbooks I saw seemed to be that you didn’t have tough, technical questions at the end of each chapter. The subject is a really complex one and probably doesn’t have too many formulae. Anyway, just to get this thing going, I’m going to stick to a basic biology textbook.</p>
<h1 id="methodology">Methodology</h1>
<p>Look at the exercise questions and list the variables of interest. Then, read the chapter to build a causal model with just those variables. Finally, without referring to the chapter, use your causal model to answer the questions. See what you missed and why and update your learning algorithm to catch it next time. Rinse and repeat till your causal model can answer each question with ease. When you’re satisfied, test your model against the Important Questions database.</p>
<p>Let’s focus on chapter one here.</p>
<h1 id="variables-of-interest">Variables of interest</h1>
<p>Show how each variable can <em>vary</em>. Talk about its possible values. If you can’t, it means you haven’t tabooed it well.</p>
<p>classification vs non-classification?</p>
<p>change in classification system vs staying fixed</p>
<p>what you want to classify (example: people you meet often vs not)</p>
<p>identification of individuals and populations vs not</p>
<p>how to write the two words in a name</p>
<p>taxon</p>
<p>sequence of taxonomical categories vs other sequences</p>
<p>what do you forbid for species, phylum, class, family, order, and genus?</p>
<p>What does a key do?</p>
<p>what does a taxonomical hierarchy do?</p>
<p>number of common characteristics</p>
<p>living organism</p>
<h1 id="causal-model">Causal model</h1>
<p>Aim: Figure out the immediate causes for each important variable. What can make this variable change?</p>
<p>If you’re confused about something, it’s probably because you’re looking at very distant causes (or you haven’t tabooed it enough). You won’t get necessary and sufficient conditions that way. There will always be some counter-example you have to handle. Like when you talk about living organisms and self-replication - what about computer viruses? Have you got the immediate cause?</p>
<p>Test for immediate cause: if “A causes B”, does A happen very close in time and space to B?</p>
<p>Equivalently, of course, can you bring in intermediate causes? Can you make B happen without A happening?</p>
<p>Look only for hypotheses, predictions, or evidence (correlational or experimental). Nothing else.</p>
<p>When you say A causes B, check both A and not-A.</p>
<p>Make sure your variables are observable. Try to make your causal variables at least observable, if not manipulable.</p>
<p>When somebody asks “Why do we do X?”, what they want are the effects of X.</p>
<p>Lesson: Reduce cycle time by completing one small part at a time. The different parts of the resource are decoupled from one another.</p>
<hr />
<p>can increase in mass from, can do so from inside = grow <- living organism</p>
<p>can produce progeny with features more or less like parents = reproduction <- living organism</p>
<p>metabolism = chemical reactions</p>
<p>cellular organization <- living organism</p>
<p>consciousness = sensing and responding to stimuli <- living organism</p>
<p>property of tissue = properties of underlying cells</p>
<p>common way to refer to organisms <- nomenclature</p>
<p>knowing what organism the name refers to <- identification</p>
<p>Binomial nomenclature = generic name and specific epithet</p>
<p>make it possible to “study” most of the organisms <- classification = what other organisms is this similar to</p>
<p>Note: if classification didn’t give you any more information than you already had, there would be no use in doing it. If you say this organism has features X, Y, and Z, and the classification system says that it is part of the “foobar” category - cool. But what have you learnt? All you still know is that it has X, Y, and Z.</p>
<p>Ah. Classification is useful only if you can learn about the other features of organisms in the “foobar” category. And that is possible only if the organisms in a category share something that the rest of the organisms don’t. So, a category is the largest set of organisms all of whom share certain features.</p>
<p>From what I understand, all organisms in a category must share a diagnosis that distinguishes them from the rest of the organisms, and must further share the features in the definition. One feature in taxonomy is that organisms in the same category probably share the same evolutionary ancestor.</p>
<p>So, how would you design categories? You just decide the diagnostic features, I think, and accept whatever other characteristics they have in common. The more general your diagnostic feature is, the fewer common characteristics you will get. So, pick your key diagnostic variables, perhaps based on your observational tools, and combine them to get various categories.</p>
<p>Note that an organism can only belong to one specific category (and all its parents). So, you apparently can’t do multiple inheritance. But what about interbreeding? Maybe that’s not possible.</p>
<p>Identification is about diagnosing which categories an organism belongs to (or just the most specific category it belongs to, since we can find the parents of a category separately).</p>
<p>taxon = interface describing a set of organisms</p>
<p>(organism, characteristics -> taxa it belongs to) = taxonomy</p>
<p>characteristics = external and internal structure, structure of cell, development process, ecological information</p>
<p>taxonomy <- characterization, identification, classification, nomenclature</p>
<p>systematics = study of relationships among organisms</p>
<h2 id="correlations">Correlations</h2>
<p>Number of “species” = 1.7-1.8 million</p>
<p>biological names, Latin (no matter what), italics, capital first word, lowercase second word</p>
<h2 id="study-the-questions">Study the questions</h2>
<p>Key: What would cause the questions to be answered?</p>
<p>“What features will you choose?” is equivalent to asking “What features will you <em>not</em> choose?”. Keep that in mind when you’re stuck.</p>
<p>You have to be ready to give examples. What are examples? I think they’re just evidence. If you want examples for X, then you need to see what evidence you have for X. One theory is that examples are just values for the variable that satisfy its interface. How do you store evidence or examples within a causal model? You don’t. You just have the final hypothesis, the result of updating on all the evidence.</p>
<hr />
<p>What does classification of living organisms cause?</p>
<p>What causes a change in a classification system? Explain the correlation of change in classification system and time. I think a classification system causes some effects. And when your requirements change, you want different effects and thus need to change the classification system. You change the classification system, in other words. You’re the designer and you change it when your needs change.</p>
<p>What diagnostic features will lead to separation into groups of people sharing features that the rest don’t? separation <- diagnostic features. But how? What diagnostic features lead to what kind of separation? Decide what groups you want, and then see what they separates them (and what doesn’t).</p>
<p>What variables depend on identification?</p>
<p>What variables depend on correct scientific name?</p>
<p>What do you forbid for “taxon”?</p>
<p>What is the interface you use to accept a value for the “taxon” variable?</p>
<p>Sequence of taxonomical categories. You could store this as a whole, or you could store the interfaces for each level and deduce the sequence.</p>
<p>What do you forbid for species, phylum, class, family, order, and genus?</p>
<p>How does a key help cause identification and classification?</p>
<p>Give examples for each part of the taxonomical hierarchy.</p>
<div class="info">Created: November 6, 2015</div>
<div class="info">Last modified: September 28, 2019</div>
<div class="info">Status: in-progress</div>
<div class="info"><b>Tags</b>: biology practice</div>
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