Characteristics of Living Things

Living Things Have Cells  Every living this is made of one or more cells (Cell Theory)  Living things can be unicellular or multicellular  Multicellular organisms have specialized cells

Living Things Sense and Respond to Change  Stimuli are the changes in the environment that affect an organism  Stimuli can be chemicals, gravity, darkness, light, sound etc  The organism’s response can be voluntary or involuntary  Organisms need a balanced internal environment. In humans, temperature and chemicals need to be stable. This state of balance is called homeostasis

Living Things Reproduce  There are two ways organisms make more organisms  - Asexual Reproduction is where one parent produces identical offspring. Most single cell organism reproduce this way  - Sexual Reproduction requires two parents who produce offspring with the characteristics of both parents. Plants and animals reproduce this way.

Living Things Have DNA  The cells of all living things have DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid  DNA provides instructions for making proteins  Proteins are important to almost all of a cell’s activities and determines characteristics.

Heredity  When organisms reproduce they pass copies of their DNA to their offspring  Heredity is why offspring resemble their parents

Living Things Use Energy  Living things use energy to carry out life’s activities  These activities include making food, breaking down food, moving materials in and out of cells, and building and repairing cells  Metabolism is the total chemical activities that the cell performs

Living Things Grow & Develop  All living things grow  - Single celled organisms grow larger cells until they get too big and divide  - Multicellular organisms increase their number of cells  Many living things change as they grow

Can you identify the characteristics of life? on/students/Characteristics_Student.doc We’ll look at some videos of microscopic cells and organisms. Write the characteristics of life you see on your handout!