1. Unit 1: Unity and Diversity among living things
Life Functions
Unit 1: Unity and Diversity among living things

2. Life functions that characterize living organisms:
Nutrition- all the activities by which an organism obtains materials from its environment.
a. Ingestion- taking in of food
b. Digestion- breakdown of food molecules
c. Egestion- removal of food materials

3. Watch a larger protist ingest a smaller (and different kind of ) protist. The protist has these cilia hairs that circulate clockwise to create a suction, pulling the smaller protist in its mouth pore. This protist will place the food into a vacuole and work on digesting it with enzymes that will break it down.

4. Transport- absorption and circulation of materials throughout the organism
The following video shows transport inside of a plant called Elodea.

5. Respiration- the chemical processes by which organisms obtain energy from food

6. Excretion- removal of waste products
The skin, kidneys and lungs
are organs that excrete wastes
generated from your cells. The
large intestine gets rid of
materials your body was never
able to use from food.

7. Synthesis- building larger molecules from smaller ones
The video below shows two single sugars joining to make a bigger sugar.

8. Regulation- control and coordination of various activities of an organism This video shows your nervous system sending chemical messages to each other to coordinate with other party of the body.

9. Growth- using products of synthesis to increase cell size and/or # of cells of an organism
This bacteria is creating more cells, this is exponential growth. The video is running exceptionally fast and growth depends on food and resource availability.

10. Reproduction- production of new individuals to maintain the species
Reproduction is not essential for the individual to survive, but the species. We will later study both asexual and sexual reproduction.(This photo shows sperms cells trying to penetrate the female egg.)

11. METABOLISM- all the chemical processes by which an organism carries on life functions What changes your metabolism?

12. HOMEOSTASIS- maintaining a stable internal environment
Find out how sweat cools you off and how to REALLY keep yourself cool on hot days or while working out!