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. Respond 2. Organization (CELLS) 3. Growth & Development 4. Energy 5. 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
Amoeba Are you Uni-celled or Multi- celled? 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-celled- made 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. Respond 2. Organization (CELLS) 3. Growth & Development 4. Energy 5. 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).