Note on How I Wrote the Exam

I basically went through the syllabus and my notes that I wrote before and during each class. Then I formulated a question, averaging one question for every two days of class. Then I went through and picked out the best questions. The remaining ones are below. I offer them to you to give you an idea of the level of question I'll be asking and my style. Obviously, the content of the questions I ask on the real exam will be different from these, but you might want to answer these anyway for practice.

1. After your graduation from the University of Idaho, you are asked to give a short presentation on plate tectonics. Someone asks you, "What drives the plates? Why do they move?". So how would you answer this?

The questioner was very happy with your answer, but this person is clearly a skeptic and asks, "How do you know? What have you observed that tells you that's the force behind plate motion?".

2. One of the important contributions of island biogeography is that it provides a predictive tool for how fragmentation and isolation of continental ecosystems might affect biodiversity. Cite and explain both a natural and artificial example of isolated continental habitats that are analogous to ocean islands.
3. Alfred Wallace is noted as one of the founders of the field of biogeography (the study of how organisms are distributed spatially). Describe a specific example of one of the places Wallace worked where organisms are spatially limited that influenced his thinking.
4. Explain how magnetic stripes form on the ocean floor.
5. Why do some magmas erupt explosively yet others erupt effusively?