What Is Life? Investigation 1: Diversity of Life

Quick Write Write down everything you can about what defines a living thing. Be sure to include examples to distinguish living from nonliving things.

What is life? Petri Dish Observations Black dots moving in circular motion Moving at different speeds Spread out/don’t cluster in groups Each dot speeds up and slows down Different sizes, different shapes (conical, oval, and round) Attach to each other Very active, slowed down No sound, no smell Stay on the surface and collect at the edges Orbital motion to axial (revolutions) motion Some not moving at all Fewer present now– less populated Appendages??

What is life? How can you explain what you observed? Why do you think the little objects are doing what they are doing? Who thinks this material is alive? Who thinks it’s nonliving? What is your evidence to support your ideas?

What is life? How many of you think you can tell if something is living? What evidence can you look for to tell if something is living?

What is life? Evidence for Life Evidence is information that supports or proves a point. Evidence of life would be observations that support or prove that something is alive. Grow Move Eat Dies Reproduce Breathe

Card sort results Living Potatoes Non-Living Bicycle Icicles Fire Undecided Spider & web

What is life? Any living thing – plant, animal, or other – is an organism. An organism is the most general word used to refer to an independently living thing. Is everything on our Evidence of Life list a characteristic of all organisms? Are there other characteristics of organisms that we need to add to this list?