What Is Life?  Objectives  SWBAT differentiate between things that are alive and not alive  Catalyst  Pick a partner at your group  Make two observations about your partner  Make two inferences BASED ON THOSE OBSERVATIONS

What’s a hypothesis?  Key Point #1: Scientists make hypotheses to answer questions they have about the world.  Remember inferences?  A hypothesis is a type of inference Educated = there’s a reason you guess what you guess. Testable = there’s a way to prove it right or wrong.

Example 1  Question: Will Mr. LY knock out Mike Tyson if he wears brass knuckles?  Hypothesis: If Mr. LY wears brass knuckles, he will not knock out Mike Tyson.  Is it educated? Yes!  Is it testable? Yes!

Example 2  Question: Would Lil Wayne be as popular as he is now in the 1970s?  Hypothesis: If Lil Wayne was in the 1970s, then he would be just as popular.  Is it educated? Yes!  Is it testable? No!

Example 3 (Think-Pair-Share)  Question: Do students at L.W. Higgins like green or orange more?  Hypothesis: Students at L.W. Higgins like green more.  Is it educated? No!  Is it testable? Yes!

Example 4 (T-P-S)  Question: Do people prefer Pepsi or Coke?  Hypothesis: Everyone prefers Pepsi over Coke….duh!  Is it educated? ???  Is it testable? No!

Why is this man happy? What would happen if you ate this ice cream? What is this woman thinking?!?!

Is it alive?  At each lab bench there is an object  Stay at your lab bench until I tell you to move  Can I have a volunteer to read the directions?

So… what’s the answer?  Key Point #2: There are six characteristics of life.  Metabolism  Reproduction  Growth  Organization  Response  Evolution An organism must have ALL of the characteristics to be alive!!!

Metabolism  Metabolism is the process that turns food into energy.  It takes energy to do everything.  Metabolism turns food (like cheetoes) into the energy that lets you do things (like play football, dance, think, etc.)

Reproduction  Reproduction = make more organisms like itself.  Reproduction happens at all levels. It starts at the cell and going up to a whole organism. Human reproduction = have sex, make babies Cellular reproduction = every cell inside your body ALSO makes baby cells

Growth  All living things change as they get older.  It doesn’t necessary mean getting bigger, but that is usually what happens.  Examples  Humans start off as babies  Frogs start off as tadpoles  Pine trees start off as pine cones

Organization  All living things are highly organized (put together in a particular way).  Examples  Alligators have four legs, tail, snout, and scales  Humans have a head, neck, torso, two arms, two legs, two hands, and two feet  A tree’s leaves and stem fit together in a predictable way

Response  All living things respond to their environment.  Whatever is going on around a living thing, the organism can change to deal with it.  Examples:  Animals move toward warmer places when it’s cold outside  Plants grow their roots towards water  Mr. LY fusses when you don’t do your homework

Evolution  Species change over time. This change is called evolution

Let’s go back  Go back to your “Living or Non-Living” guide  In the “After lesson” column, EXPLAIN if each of your hypotheses was right or wrong  Use MR GORE to back up your answer  Remember: for something to be alive, it has to display ALL SIX of the characteristics of life.

Exit Question  Explain what at least THREE of the letters in MR GORE stand for. Provide an example for each.  You observe that fire grows when you add fuel to it, but it does not reproduce. Is it alive? Why/why not?

Answers  Corn Kernels: living because inside the seed, there are living cells that can do all six things.  Flower: living because you can put it back in water and it’s all good  Bug: nearly all cells are dead, but even if they are not, they cannot do all the things necessary for life (esp. response & reproduction)  Carrot: alive, too. Cut off the tops and it will grow.  Raw Meat: there are living cells, but cannot reproduce, it needs nourishment from a body. Debateable.  Wood: it’s cell walls. No more living cells.  Candle: fire is not alive. Candles not made of cells.  Crystal: Nope. It’s organized but not cells.