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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

bacteria

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)

Many celled

multi-celled

Multicellular organisms.

Plants & animals

*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

• Ex: walking

Metamorphosis

•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

ReproductionAsexual 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).