Biology is the Study of Life
How do you know that something is alive?
Examine the bottle at your table. I have added
several organisms to the bottle that belong to a
new species of lice (Pediculus humanus)
Make a list of characteristics on your white
board that allow you to classify the lice as a
living organism.
Do you see the lice swimming?
Do you see the lice breathing?
Can you see their legs kicking?
Can you see their mouths open
to eat?
How many legs do they have?
Common Louse
(Pediculus humanus)
Required Materials
• Class notebook - 3-ring Binder
• Dry erase marker (any color)
• A covered textbook (paper bags work well)
• You will NOT need to bring your book to class everyday
• Pencils or pens (no red ink, please)
• Gmail address (that YOU check regularly)
Chapter 1 - The Science of Biology
Do Now - Shells and Snowflakes
Radiolarian
Snowflake
How can we distinguish between living and nonliving things, such as a
radiolarian (left) and a snowflake (right)? A radiolarian is a tiny living thing
that is covered with a glasslike shell and lives in the ocean. A snowflake is
a crystal made of frozen water.
1.
What are some similarities between the snowflake and the shell of
the radiolarian?
2.
What are some differences between the snowflake and the glass shell?
3.
Would you classify the shell as a living organism or a nonliving thing?
Explain your answer.
Characteristics of Living Organisms
Characteristic
Examples
Living organisms are made up of units
called cells.
Many microorganisms consist of only a single cell.
The majority of animals and plants are multicellular
Living organisms have the ability to
reproduce.
Maple trees reproduce sexually. A hydra can
reproduce asexually by budding.
Living organisms grow and develop
during their lifetime.
Flies begin life as eggs, then develop into maggots,
and then develop into adult flies.
Living organisms obtain and use
materials and energy.
Plants obtain their energy from sunlight. Animals
obtain their energy from the food they eat.
Living organisms respond to stimuli in
their environment.
Leaves and stems of plants grow and move towards
a light source.
Living organisms act to maintain a stable
internal environment(Homeostasis)
Despite changes in the external environment, a
robin maintains a constant body temperature.
Taken as a group, living organisms
change over time. (Populations of
organisms EVOLVE)
Plants that live in the desert survive because they
have adapted to the hot arid conditions of the
desert.
All organisms pass on hereditary traits
through their DNA
Children and offspring often resemble their parents,
certain traits are shared by all members of the same
species (number of limbs and eyes)
Characteristics of Life Foldable
Your job is to construct a foldable (I’ll show you how) that will help you
to remember the EIGHT (8) characteristics of living organisms.
1. On the uppermost flap, give your foldable a title such as “The
Characteristics of Living Organisms”
2. At the top of each page of your foldable, you should write one of the
characteristics of life that we discussed in class.
3. You should divide the inside pages of your foldable into two parts by
drawing a horizontal line through the middle of each section.
4. On the top of the page choose an example of a living organism and
briefly explain how this organism exhibits the characteristic of life.
5. On the bottom of the page, draw a picture/image that will help you
to remember the characteristic of life that you explained above.
Characteristics of Life Activity: “Am I Alive?”
1) Work in a group of 2 or 3 students.
2) Each group should locate and observe an object located on
their table.
3) As a group, decide which characteristics of life (if any) each
object possesses. Decide if this object is alive, dead, or is
an example of a non-living thing. Be prepared to justify
your answer.
4) Write your answers on the white board and be prepared
to share your answers with the rest of the class.
Goal: To generate a list of characteristics that all organisms
share.
Do Now: On your Do Now handout, match the characteristics
of living things with the pictures below. Be prepared to explain
the reasons for your choices.
Characteristics of Living Things
1. Living things are made of cells that can
work together
2. Living things make more living things (i.e.
reproduce)
3. Living things change during their lives (i.e.
grow and develop)
4. Living things respond to their
surroundings
Do Now - Our first quiz is next week! To review, list as
many characteristics of life that you can remember. Try
not to use your notes or a neighbor for help!
Do Now - How Do You Know that It’s Alive?
You are driving in your car (or maybe your parent’s car), and
you discover a turtle lying in the middle of the road. You decide
to take a closer look because you always wanted a pet turtle
(Who doesn’t?). The animal looks intact, but it does not appear
to be moving. How would you go about determining if the turtle
is a living organism?”
Can you explain why the car is not alive?
Not all organisms exhibit all the characteristics at all times, but
living organisms will exhibit all the characteristics at some time in
their life cycle. If you make the turtle your pet, you will in time
observe them all.
Do Now: Understanding Fossil Butte
!
In the southwest corner of Wyoming, there is a flat-topped mountain
called Fossil Butte. A fossil of a fish was found near the top of Fossil
Butte in a rock formation that is about 50 million years old. Fossils of
other kinds of fishes, as well as turtles, have been found at Fossil
Butte. The land around Fossil Butte is dry, and the Pacific Ocean is
more than 1000 kilometers (620 miles) away. How could fossils of
sea-dwelling animals have formed at Fossil Butte?
1.!Working with a partner, think of several questions that a scientist
might ask in order to understand why there are fish fossils in the
desert of Wyoming. Write these questions on your whiteboard.
2.!Discuss the questions with your partner and suggest a possible
answer to each question.
3.!How could a scientist go about finding an answer to each of the
questions that you have proposed?
Scientific Method in Biology
Identify a problem/Ask a question
Make observations, gather factual information
Find out what is already known about the problem
Make a hypothesis
(The hypothesis must be testable with an experiment)
Design and conduct the experiment
Collect results
Make conclusions
Do Now: Making Observations and Gathering
Factual Information
Read the paragraphs below and prepare to answer the questions
on the next slide
What question or problem is Dr. Payne investigating in this
case?
Directions: Fill in the 1st box with something Payne observed the
elephants doing. Fill in the 2nd box with something she observed
about the air around her. Fill in the 3rd box with a fact that she knew.
Why do elephants use low sounds to communicate
with each other?
Do Now: Mystery Worms
A teacher collected some beetles from a rotting log
and placed them in a container of dry oatmeal in
her classroom. She kept the box covered with a
light cloth so that the beetles could not escape.
She also asked one of her students to add potato
and apple pieces once a week to provide food and
moisture for the beetles. After several weeks, the
student reported that there were some strangelooking, wormlike organisms in the container.
1.!Formulate a hypothesis that might explain the presence of the
“worms” in the container.
2.!How could you test your hypothesis? What results might you collect?
3.!Identify the independent variable and the dependent variable in the
experiment.
4. Identify the control/s in your proposed experiment.
Keys to Writing a Great Hypothesis
“If ___________, then ___________ because __________.”
Prediction
Explanation
I think ___ will happen during the experiment because of ___...
An experiment is NOT and NEVER HAS BEEN an educated guess.
No matter what you’ve been told in the past, erase this definition from
your memory! There is no guessing in science!
Keys to Writing a Great Hypothesis
1) The hypothesis offers a prediction of what might happen &
an explanation of why something should happen.
Example - Elephants use low sounds to communicate with
each other because low frequency sounds travel further
than high frequency sounds and elephants are often spread
out in their habitat.
Example - Bees pollinate red-colored flowers better than
blue-colored flowers because the bee compound eye
detects red light better than blue light.
2) A hypothesis must be testable with a scientific experiment
Example - We will count the number of honeybees that
visit red and blue-colored flowers during a certain amount
of time
The Importance of Variables in Scientific
Experiments
Variable - A condition that can change during an experiment
There are three (3) types of variables used in Biology:
Independent (Manipulated)
variable
A condition in an
experiment that the
scientist changes or
manipulates
Dependent (Responding)
variable
A condition that is
being measured
during an experiment
“Constant” variable
A condition which
is kept the same
during an experiment
Changes to dependent variable depend on changes in the
independent variable
Experimental Controls
Control - An experimental set-up in which the effect of the independent variable is not
included or not tested
Negative control - An experimental set-up in which a change in the dependent variable
is not observed/measured according to expectations. The independent variable is not
expected to have an effect.
Redi’s Experiment on Spontaneous Generation
Question: Does life originate from living or non-living things?
OBSERVATIONS: Flies land on meat that is left uncovered. Later, maggots appear on the meat.
HYPOTHESIS:
PROCEDURE
Uncovered jars
Covered jars
Controlled Variables:
jars, type of meat,
location, temperature,
time
Several
days pass
Independent Variable:
gauze covering that
keeps flies away from
meat
Dependent Variable:
whether maggots
appear
CONCLUSION:
Maggots appear
No maggots appear
Do Now - Understanding Variables
1. What are some of the variables that are held constant in the Redi
experiment?
2. What is the control in the experiment?
3. What is the independent variable in the Redi experiment?
4. What is the dependent variable in the Redi experiment?
5. What is the difference between a constant and a control in a scientific
experiment?
Spallanzani’s Test of Spontaneous Generation
1. What was Spallanzani’s
hypothesis?
Gravy is boiled.
Gravy is boiled.
Flask is
open.
Flask is
sealed.
Gravy is teeming
with microorganisms.
Gravy is free of
microorganisms.
2. Is boiling the independent
or dependent variable in
the experiment?
3. Which variables were
kept the same, or
controlled, during the
experiment?
Hypothesis vs. Theory
Hypothesis
An educated
“guess (not really),” a
prediction
or explanation
regarding what might
happen
Must be testable
with an experiment
Theory
An explanation
for how or why
something works
An explanation
that comes from a
hypothesis that has
been tested many
times
Supported by a
large amount of
scientific data and
observations
Instructions for the Rip-o-Meter Lab Activity
Log in to Google Docs and create a new document.
Title your document.
Rip-o-Meter Lab - Last Name Partner 1, Last Name Partner 2
Read the first page of the lab handout. If you have questions, please ask.
Answer the questions for Designing Your Experiment - Part A in your Google document. Do
not move on to Part B before I have checked and approve your answers.
Answer the questions for Designing Your Experiment - Part B in your
Google document. Do not move on to the rough draft of your procedure before I have
checked and approve your answers.
Write the rough draft of your procedure in your Google document. Do not move on to the
final draft of your procedure before I have checked and approve your draft.
Instructions for the Rip-o-Meter Lab Activity
After the final draft of your procedure has been approved you may begin your experiment.
Create a new table in your Google document to record your data. Please ask if you are not
sure how to do make a new table. A sample data table is provided for you on the lab
handout.
When you are finished collecting data answer the data analysis and conclusion questions on
your Google document
grow & develop
stimulus/stimuli
organisms
adapt
specific tasks
body mass
organization
new structures
mate
survival
species
reproduce
specialized structures
environment
produce “fertile” offspring
Chapter 1 Vocabulary - Set #1 (Sample)
Word
Definition
Sentence or
Example
Biology
The study of living
Students study
organisms and their Biology to learn
environment
more about the
natural world.
Organism
Any living thing that Bear, rose, oak
shows the
tree, snail,
characteristics of life human being
Image (that
helps you to
remember the
definition