Characteristics of Living
Things
Life Science
Objectives

Be able to determine whether something is a
living thing
or
a non-living thing.

Learn and understand the 5 main
characteristics of living things. (ROGER)
Organism

A living thing
How do you know when
something is living?
There are 5 Characteristics of Living
Things
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Respond
Organization (CELLS)
Growth & Development
Energy
Reproduction
ROGER
R
Respond
Living things respond
to their environment.

Why is Buddy screaming?
Buddy is responding to the face
chewing the bone!

Stimulus: anything that causes a
change in an organism.

Causes the organism to react

Response: a reaction or
change in behavior due
to the stimulus.
A stimulus causes a Response
What is the stimulus here?
Music = stimulus
Dancing = response
Homeostasis: Living things maintain a
stable internal balance
The ability to keep the proper conditions
inside no matter what is going on outside.
ROGER
Organized

Living things are all composed
of cells.

Cells: The basic unit of life that
carries on the life functions.
Organisms can be
1-celled
uni-cellular


bacteria
Amoeba
Are you Uni-celled or Multicelled?


Multi –celled!
You are made up of many
little cells that are different
types with different jobs
*multi-celled- made
up of different kinds of
cells with different jobs
(specialized cells)
Multicellular organisms.
Plants & animals
Many celled
multi-celled

*multi-celledmade
up of different
kinds of
cells with different
jobs
(specialized cells)
Living things are organized
All of the little cells that come together to
make up living things do so in a specific
order.

For example a group of muscle cells come
together to form our muscles.
Here are some types of cells in your
body….
Can you guess what type of cells they
are????
White blood cells
Red blood cells
Cardiac muscle cell
ROGER
Grow and Develop



Growth: Unicellular organism
increase in cell size.
Multicellular organism increase the
number of cells.
Grow

Growth- get larger in size
Development:
Organisms grow and
become more
complex, they change
physically and in their
abilities
Metamorphosis
• Ex: walking
•
•body changes over time
ROGER
Energy

Energy comes directly or indirectly from
Sun.
Heterotrophs: Animals and humans
eat food to obtain their energy.
Consumer (heterotroph)
Eats other organisms for food,
does not make own food
Autotrophs: Plants however use the
sunlight to obtain their energy. Make their
own food.
Producer (autotroph)
Makes own food using
sun’s energy.
The squirrel's cells are able to work
because of the energy he obtained by eating
berries, produced by a plant, using the
energy from the sun.
ROGER
Living Things Reproduce

Living things produce offspring that are
similar to parents:
HYDRA
Reproduction
Asexual Reproduction: One cell
(1 parent) divides in half making an
exact copy.
The offspring are identical to
the parent!
Reproduction
Sexual Reproduction: cells from 2
parents:
egg and sperm.
Offspring are NOT identical to the
parents!
There are 5 Characteristics of Living
Things
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Respond
Organization (CELLS)
Growth & Development
Energy
Reproduction
What do living things need?
• To survive, all living things need a
place to live and raw materials.
• The raw materials that they require
and the exact place where they live can
vary.
Place to live
the environment limits where
organisms can live.
 An organism’s surroundings must
provide for all its needs

Raw materials
All living things need water.
 Most organisms are composed of
more than 50 % water

Raw materials

.
Living things are made up of
substances such as proteins, fats,
and sugars.
• Animals take in most of these
substances from their food.
• Plants and some bacteria make
them (proteins, fats and sugars)
using raw materials from their
environment (surroundings).