1. Chapter 1 Principles of Life
Name 5 organisms you can see in this picture? (ferns, trees, moss, vines, brush/bushes/undergrowth)
Name 5 organisms you think could be in the picture but are too small to be seen without zooming in (worms, bacteria, insects, viruses, parasites, small mammals, snails, spiders, birds)
What is the role of microscopic organisms? (nitrogen fixation, decomposition)
Name 5 organisms you think could be in the picture but are camouflaged? (frogs, small mammals, snakes, lizards, birds)
What is the most common color in the picture? Why? (green, all living organisms require energy. The source of almost all this energy is the sun and that energy has to be converted to sugar and the chemical that does that is chlorophyll which is green and found in plants)
What traits do the trees have to possess in order to out compete its neighbor? (taller, deeper roots)
What is it competing for? (sunlight, water)
How does the next generation of each of theses living organisms automatically appear like/identical/nearly identical/similar to the previous generation? (DNA)
This slide pulls in all 4 Big Ideas. Big Idea I: Evolution (adaptation of each organism to its environment), Big Idea 2: Energy (chloropyll), Big Idea 3: Hereditary information (DNA), Big Idea 4: interactions (animals need plants for energy, decomposers break down animals and nutrients returned to the soil

2. Concept 1.1
Living organisms share common aspects of structure, function and energy flow
Evidence we currently have suggests that all living things have a single common ancestor.

3. All organisms Are composed of a common set of chemical components.
Genetic information that uses a nearly universal code to specify the assembly of proteins
Convert molecules obtained from their environment into new biological molecules
Extract energy from the environment and use it to do biological work
Regulate their internal environment
Replicate their genetic information in the same manner when reproducing themselves
Share sequence similarities among a fundamental set of genes
What are the common set of chemical components (nucleic acids [DNA, RNA], carbohydrates, lipids, proteins [amino acids])
What is this nearly universal code?? Codon chart [ex: UUU=phenylalanine])
What molecules are being converted? (CO2 – in plants converted to sugar. complex carbohydrates – converted to glucose
Give an example of an energy conversion found in living things: photosynthesis (light energy to chemical energy), cellular respiration (chemical to heat)
How do we regulate our internal environment (negative feedback loops…ex: body temperature, blood sugar)
DNA replication is so similar in all living things that viruses can get host organisms to replicate viral DNA.
Certain sequences are the same in all living things:
Hox genes (from an abbreviation of homeobox) are a group of related genes that control the body plan of the embryo along the anterior-posterior (head-tail) axis. After the embryonic segments have formed, the Hox proteins determine the type of segment structures (e.g. legs, antennae, and wings in fruit flies or the different vertebrate ribs in humans) that will form on a given segment. Hox proteins thus confer segmental identity, but do not form the actual segments themselves. (source:

4. Life’s Calendar Our History in 1 minute Our History in 24 hours
Distribute worksheet Exploration Throughout Time

5. Concept 1.2
Genetic Systems Control the Flow, Exchange, Storage and Use of Information
Genome – sum total of all the information encoded by an individual’s genes
Genes – portions of the DNA that can be decoded to build proteins.
All the cells in an organism have the same DNA but different genes are used in different cells.

6. Think of DNA as the letters in the words of a recipe
The recipe is a gene
The cookbook is the genome.
We all have a very similar cookbook…very minor differences from one person to the next
Each of our cells have the entire cookbook in them but only read or use about 3% of the recipes.
many people might have a copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook on a shelf at home (Best selling cookbook in America for many years) but that it’s highly doubtful anyone uses all the recipes or that any one person has used exactly the same recipies as someone else. I’ve used the cookbook to make blueberry muffins but someone else might use it for pancakes. This is what your cells do…using different portions of the cookbook.
Minor differences or typos (mutations) may make no difference in a recipe (1/4 tsp of salt vs. ½ tsp of salt) but it might make the recipe horrible (1/2 c salt vs ½ tsp salt). There’s even a small chance it might make the dish BETTER.
The recipe for pancakes is not a pancake. I can’t rip the recipe out of the cookbook, pour syrup on it and eat it. Well, I can but it wouldn’t be good. DNA is the same way…it’s a code for the protein. Not the actual protein

7. Organisms Interact with and Affect Their Environments
Concept 1.3
Organisms Interact with and Affect Their Environments
Hierarchy –biological systems are organized on a hierarchy from basic building blocks to complete functioning ecosystems.
Integration – Much of biology involves integrating investigations across many of the hierarchical levels.
Use the hierarchy of living things cards. Have students fill in handout and check their answers against the key.

8. Organisms interacting and affecting their environment
With energy transformations: Metabolism - sum total of all the chemical transformations and other work done in all the cells of an organism
With regulatory systems: homeostasis - the maintenance of a narrow range of conditions in the internal environment
With competition and cooperation: symbiosis – a close, long-term relationship between individuals of two different species

9. Evolution Explains Both the Unity and Diversity of Life
Evolution – a change in the genetic makeup of a population through time.
The result of this constant change is diversity.
The first unit of study we’ll cover after this introduction is evolution.

10. Why are we starting with evolution?
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”
Theodosius Dobzhansky
This quote emphasizes the need to integrate an evolutionary perspective into all aspects of biological study.

11. Science is Based on Quantifiable Observations and Experiments
Not only should we make observations of the natural world but we also have to be able to quantify our observations.
This means that we have to have mathematical and statistical calculations about the data we are collecting.