The Characteristics of Life:
Living versus Nonliving
Introduction: Biology is (bios – life, logos – they study of) is the study of living things.
Biologists have found more than a million different life forms on our planet. The big
question is what is alive and what isn’t? In native culture, things like fire, earth and water
are considered living things. In this activity you will be working with in groups
brainstorming characteristics of living things. For instance, in order to be alive does the
thing have to breathe, move, sleep? You decide!! The two below are quite easy but
the big question is WHY??
In Groups of 3, list your David Letterman Top 10 characteristics of living things
with the most important being #1.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Intro to Biology Unit
Which group does it belong to?
Look at the pictures below and decide if each one shows a living thing, a nonliving thing, or a dead one. Also be able to provide one reason for each choice.
onions in the garden
frog eggs
________________
______________
_______________
moving car
moving insect
peas in a packet
________________
a fire
________________
_____________
block of wood
_______________
peas in the garden
leaf cut from a tree
____________
______________
Intro to Biology Unit
Living, Non-Living or Dead?
Introduction
The
picture
opposite
shows some living and
non-living things in a
pond. The fish and the
plants are living things.
The pebbles and mud at
the bottom are non-living.
The pond may also hold
some dead plants and
animals. They were once
alive but now are not.
What ‘living’ means
All living things have the following characteristics:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Nutrition – plants use light energy to make their food; animals eat plants
or other animals for food.
Respiration – living things take in oxygen and use it to produce energy;
animals take in oxygen by breathing.
Excretion – living things give out materials they don’t need, e.g. in sweat
or urine.
Reproduction – all living things can produce young like themselves.
Growth – living things get bigger as they grow older.
Sensation – living things can react to changes around them, like sounds,
light, and so on.
Movement – most animals can move easily; plants can also move, e.g.
they can grow towards light.
Transport – living things must move things in a liquid inside a cell or
inside the organism
Secretion – some organisms release specialized substances such as oils,
hormones, beeswax, enzymes
Metabolism – the sum of all energy processes to keep the organism alive
Regulation – the ability to maintain an internal balance despite changes
in the external environment.
Intro to Biology Unit