The characteristics of Living things www.juniorscience.ie

Metabolism METABOLISM Metabolism is all of the chemical reactions that occur in a living thing Examples: Growth Repair Responsiveness Reproduction All living things metabolise www.juniorscience.ie

Continuity of Life Continuity of life means that living things can only come from other living things of the same type. You need reproduction and heredity to achieve continuity www.juniorscience.ie

Learning check Explain Metabolism Explain ‘Continuity of Life’ www.juniorscience.ie

What is Life? Is something that all living things have. It involves the interaction of the characteristics of life: Organisation Nutrition Excretion Response Reproduction www.juniorscience.ie

Organisation Living things are highly organised Can be Unicellular or multicellular Cells are specialized to carry out different functions www.juniorscience.ie

Levels of organisation Cell Tissue Organ Organ system Organism Population www.juniorscience.ie

Nutrition means getting food and using it All living organisms need food as a source of energy Plants can make their own food using energy from the sun (photosynthesis) Animals need to find an external source of food www.juniorscience.ie

Excretion Excretion - is the removal of the waste products of metabolism from the body. All living things must get rid of waste material – if it was allowed to accumulate it would become toxic A balance must be maintained between their internal and external environments. NH3 www.juniorscience.ie

Methods of excretion Various organised structures involved In Animals: the urinary system, skin, lungs In Plants: the stomata www.juniorscience.ie

Response means the ability of an organism react to changes in their environment Some of the things that cause living organisms to respond are light, sound, touch, chemicals, gravity www.juniorscience.ie

Most organisms move towards things they need and away from things that harm them www.juniorscience.ie

producing more organisms of the species Scientists have a name for the “children” of all living organisms – they say OFFSPRING Reproduction means producing more organisms of the species Some organisms reproduce from one parent only – this is called ASEXUAL reproduction Other organisms reproduce by combining one cell from a male with one cell from a female – this is called SEXUAL reproduction www.juniorscience.ie

What have you learnt today?? What does metabolism mean? How do living things achieve continuity of life? Name the 5 processes that are needed to have life? What are the following….. Nutrition Organisation Excretion Reproduction Response www.juniorscience.ie