Sunken Lesson
It’s Alive!!!
Betty Jo Leonard
7th grade
CHARACTERISTICS OF
LIVING THINGS
• The six characteristics of living things are:
• Living things must have cells
• Living things must sense and respond to
change
• Living things must be able to reproduce
• Living things must have DNA
• Living things must use energy
• Living things must grow and develop
Living things must have cells
• Every living organism is composed of
cells.
• A cell is a membrane-covered structure
that contains al of the materials
necessary for life
• There are two types of cells:
– Unicellular
– Multicellular
Characteristics of
Unicelluar organisms
Unicellular organism are composed of
only one cell
Examples:
Amoeba
Hydra
• Unicellular organisms reproduce
asexually
• Unicellular organisms do not perform
specialized functions
Characteristics of
Multicellular organisms
• Multicellular organisms are composed of
two or more cells and the
numbers can be in the trillions.
Examples:
Monkeys
Trees
Humans
• Multicellular organisms reproduce sexually
• Multicellular organisms has cells that perform
specific functions.
Examples:
Muscle cells are specialized for
movement
Nerve cells transport signals
Living things must sense
and respond to change
All organisms have the ability to sense
change in their environment and respond to
that change.
Stimulus (plural stimuli) is any
change in an organism’s
environment that affects
the activity of the organism
Response is the reaction to what
happens when you reacted
to the stimulus
• Homeostasis is the ability to maintain a
stable internal environment
regardless of the external
environment
Example:
- The body sweats when it is hot
outside in the summer
- The body shivers with cold
chills when the body is cold
Living must be able to
reproduce
• There are two types of reproduction:
– Asexual
– Sexual
• Asexual reproduction is where a
single parent produces
offspring that is identical to
the parent
Example:
Earthworm
Amoeba
• Sexual reproduction is where two parents
from opposites sexes each
contributes sex cells to produce
offspring that will share
characteristics of both parents
Examples:
Animals
Flowers
Living things must have
DNA
• DNA is an acronym for deoxyribonucleic
acid
Deoxyribonucleic acid is heredity material
that controls all the activities of
a cell, contains the information
to make new cells
and provides for
making proteins
• DNA provides instructions for making
molecules called proteins
• Proteins are responsible for almost all of the
activities of an organism’s
characteristics
• During reproduction DNA is copied and
passed on its offspring
• DNA carries the characteristics of the
organism
• Heredity is the transmission of
characteristics from one
generation to the next
generation
Living things must use
Energy
• Organisms use energy to carry out the
activities of life
• Metabolism is the sum total of all the
chemical activities that a
cell performs
Four stages of Metabolism
• Ingestion
• Digestion
• Respiration
• Excretion
• Ingestion is the taking in of food
• Digestion is the breaking down and
absorption of nutrients (food)
• Respiration is the exchanges of
gases in the body
• Excretion is the removal of bodily waste
• There are four ways in which bodily
waste are excreted from the body
-Urine
-Feces (Bowel Movements-BM’s)
-Perspiration (sweat)
-Carbon Dioxide (Exhaling)
Living things must have the
ability to Grow and Develop
• All organisms regardless whether
they are unicellular (single-cell) or
multicellular (two or more cells) grow
and develop during periods of their
lives
Developmental Stages
•
•
•
•
•
Embryo
Infancy
Toddler
Adolescent
Adulthood