Bell Work
Have you ever wondered how homing
pigeons find their way home? Do you know
why the dinosaurs went extinct? Write five
questions about the natural world that you
hope to have answered in this class.
Record your questions on the page 6 of your
IAN.
Notes for this PPT should begin on Page 5 of your IAN and
continue on Page 7, if needed.
Unit 1 The World of Life Science
Section 1
Asking About Life
Imagine . . .
You are walking through a field with some
classmates. Suddenly you notice that there are frogs
hopping around all over the place! You and your
classmates start catching the frogs with a net. As
you lift the first frog from the net, you notice
something. Its legs seem to be broken. You look at
your friend’s frog. It seems to be injured, too. You
look at another. A frog with no eyes? Wait a minute!
These frogs aren’t injured. They’re deformed! What
are these, aliens from outer space?
Objectives:
I can:
• Explain the importance of asking questions in
life science.
• State examples of life scientists at work.
• List three ways life science is beneficial to
living things.
Imagine that it’s summer. You are lying in the
grass at the park, casually looking around. Three
dogs are playing on your left. A few bumblebees
are visiting nearby flowers. And an ant is
carrying a crumb away from your sandwich.
Suddenly, a question pops into your head: How
do ants find food? Then, you think of another
question: Why do the bees visit the yellow
flowers but not the red ones? Congratulations!
You have just taken the first steps toward
becoming a life scientist.
How did you do it? You observed the
living world around you. You were
curious, and you asked questions
about your observations. Those steps
are what science is all about. Life
science is the study of living things.
STOP!
• Reflection check:
– What is life science?
Record your answer in a complete sentence on page
6 of your IAN.
The world around you is full of an amazing
diversity of life. Single-celled algae float
unseen in ponds. Giant redwood trees
seem to touch the sky. And 40-ton whales
swim through the oceans. For every living
thing, or organism, that has ever lived, you
could ask many questions. Those questions
could include (1) How does the organism
get its food? (2) Where does it live? and (3)
Why does it behave in a particular way?
Questions are easy to
think of. Take a look
around your room, your
home, and your
neighborhood. What
questions about life
science come to mind?
The student in this picture
has questions about some
very familiar organisms.
Do you know the answer
to any of his questions?
STOP!
Answer the following questions in your IAN on Page 8:
• What questions about life science come to mind?
• If you know the answer to any of the boy’s questions,
record the answers in your IAN. If you don’t know the
answers, pick one question and write a possible answer
using what you know about the subject.
• Why do leaves change color in the fall?
• How do birds know where to go when they migrate?
• Why did the dinosaurs die out?
The questions you can ask about your neighborhood are
just a sample of all the questions you could ask about
the world. The world is made up of many different
places to live, such as deserts, forests, coral reefs, and
tide pools. Just about anywhere you go, you will find
some kind of living organism. If you observe these
organisms, you can easily think of questions to ask
about them.
Close your eyes for a moment, and imagine a life
scientist. What do you see? Do you see someone in a
laboratory and peering into a microscope? On page 8 of
your IAN, draw a picture of what you imagine a life
scientist to look like.
Which of these people do you think
are life scientists?
Irene Pepperberg asks,
“Are parrots smart
enough to learn human
language?”
Irene Duhart Long
asks, “How does the
human body respond
to space travel?”
Geerat Vermeij asks, “How
have shells changed over
time?”
If you guessed that all of those people are life
scientists, then you are right. Anyone can
investigate the world around us. Women and
men from any cultural or ethnic background can
become life scientists.
Making investigations in a laboratory is an
important part of life science, but life science
can be studied in many other places, too. Life
scientists carry out investigations on farms, in
forests, on the ocean floor-even in space. They
work for businesses, hospitals, government
agencies, and universities. Many are also
teachers.
What a life scientist studies is determined by
one thing-his or her curiosity. Life scientists
specialize in many different areas of life
science. They may study how organisms
function and behave. Or they may study how
organisms interact with each other and their
environment. Some life scientists explore how
organisms reproduce and pass traits from one
generation to the next. Some life scientists
investigate ancient origins of organisms and the
ways in which organisms have changed over
time.
What is the point of asking all these
questions? Life scientists might find
some interesting answers, but do any of
the answers really matter? Will the
answers affect your life? Absolutely!
As you study life science, you will see
how the investigations of life science
affect you and all the living things
around you.
Polio is a disease that causes paralysis by affecting the
brain and nerves. Do you know anyone who has had polio?
Probably not. The polio virus has been eliminated from
most of the world. But at one time, it was much more
common. In 1952, before life scientists discovered ways to
prevent the spread of the polio virus, it infected 58,000
Americans.
Today, life scientists continue to search for ways to fight
diseases. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a
disease that kills millions of people every year. Life
scientists have discovered how the virus that causes AIDS is
carried from one person to another. Scientists have also
learned about how the virus affects the body. By learning
more about the virus, scientists may find a cure for this
deadly disease.
Stop!
Do you have an illness, or have a family
member with one? On page 8, explain what
the illness is, what you know about it, and
whether it can be passed on to others. Also, if
you know, tell me about the treatment of the
disease. List any questions you have about
the illness. If you or a family member doesn’t
have an illness that you are aware of, please
use the illness “cancer” and answer the
questions using that illness.
Some diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, are inherited.
They are passed from parents to children. Most of
the information that controls an organism’s cells is
inherited as coded information. Changes in small
parts of this information may cause the organism to
be born with or to develop certain diseases.
Scientists worldwide are studying the way humans
inherit this code that controls their cells. By
learning about this code, scientists hope to find
ways to cure or prevent inherited diseases.
Summary:
• Science is a process of gathering knowledge
about the natural world. Science includes making
observations and asking questions about those
observations. Life science is the study of living
things.
• A variety of people may become life scientists for
a variety of reasons.
• Life science can help solve problems such as
disease or pollution, and it can be applied to help
living things survive.