1. Agenda Plexers What is Biology Characteristics of life.
Handout: What is Biology?

2. By the end of this lesson…
Students should be able to:
Identify the definition of Biology and list several topics/concepts studied in Biology.
Recognize that all living things share seven characteristics of life.
Describe the seven characteristics of life.
Say: “Sally sells sea shells down by the sea shore” three times very quickly.

3. Why should I be excited about Biology? What is Biology? What is Life?

5. Biology Biology is defined as the study of life.
The term biology is composed of two roots:
bio = life
logos = study of

6. Topics in Biology
There are many topics which biology covers. In this class we will mainly be concerned with the following:
Basic Biochemistry – Chemistry of life
Cells – The building blocks of life
Genetics – How life functions & reproduces
Evolution – Life changing over time
Taxonomy – Classification of living things
Ecology – Interactions of living things
Microbiology – Life too small for the unaided eye to observe

7. Who Studies Biologic Concepts?
The Science Name & What they Study
Botany
Plants
Cytology
Cells
Ecology
Relations between living things and their surroundings
Zoology
Animals

8. All this creates a Question:
What is
Life?
Discuss for three minutes with group. Ask students what they think life is? What characteristics do living things share? Write their answers on the board.

9. Am I Alive?
Strike match and ask students if they think the fire is living? Explain that it consumes oxygen, produces heat, can reproduce itself, etc. Ask students if each image shows something that is living, or non-living. Have them explain why or why not.

10. Characteristics of Life
All life has seven characteristics in common:
Living things are made of cells.
Living things maintain their internal environment.
Living things pass on their traits.
Living things perform chemical activities. This is known as metabolism.
Living things grow and develop.
Living things respond to a stimulus.
Living things reproduce.

11. Cells All living things are made of one or more cells.
A cell is the smallest unit capable of all life processes

12. Homeostasis
All living organisms must maintain a stable internal environment in order to function properly.
The maintenance of a stable internal environment in spite of changes in the external environment is called homeostasis.

13. Metabolism
Living organisms carry out different chemical reactions in order to obtain energy.
The sum of all the chemical reactions carried out in an organism is called metabolism.
Almost all of the energy used by living things originally comes from the sun.

14. Response to Stimuli
In addition to maintaining a stable internal environment, living organisms respond to their external environment.
Can you think of a way that you have responded to your environment
today?
Alarm clock went off this morning, you got up…or hit snooze a bunch of times. Maybe you were hungry and your stomach was growling, so you ate breakfast.

15. Reproduction
Most living things can reproduce. Reproduction is the process by which organisms make more of their own kind from one generation to the next.

16. Heredity & Evolution
When an organism reproduces, it passes on its own traits to its offspring in a process called heredity.
Inherited characteristics change over generations. This process is called evolution

17. Growth and Development
All living organisms grow.
As organisms grow, many change. This process is called development.
Development differs from evolution because development refers to change in a single individual during that individual’s life.