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Introduction to living things

Introduction to living things. Unit 1: Diversity. In this unit…. We learn about: What are the characteristics of living things? How and why do we organize them? What are the major groups of living things? What are their unique characteristics? How are they interdependent? .

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Introduction to living things

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  1. Introduction to living things Unit 1: Diversity

  2. In this unit… We learn about: • What are the characteristics of living things? • How and why do we organize them? • What are the major groups of living things? • What are their unique characteristics? • How are they interdependent?

  3. Living or non-living? Living! Living!

  4. So that was easy… But the next question is: What do a tree and a platypus and a lemur have in common?

  5. Characteristics of living things:1. Organization • Living things are highly organized • Consist of one or more cells • May also contain tissues, organs and organ systems

  6. 2. Metabolism • Living things bring in nutrients & release waste • They break larger chemicals down (catabolism) and they use the chemical building blocks to make new, useful molecules (anabolism) • They transform energy between its different forms

  7. Homeo = same Stasis = remaining stable 3. Homeostasis = Keeping a constant internal environment, with set concentrations of nutrients, gases, temperature and so on.

  8. 4. Growth and Development • Living creatures add to their size or to their number of cells over time • They often go through a life cycle, a series of developmental stages • Humans go from a zygote embryo  fetus  infant toddler child adolescent  adult

  9. 5. Detection and response to stimuli • Plants exhibit ‘tropisms’ such as phototropism (growing towards light) or gravitropism (shoots growing against gravity) • A sea anemone (which has no brain) can respond to touch by pulling in its tentacles • Many organisms have special chemosensory organs to detect tiny amounts of chemicals in the air

  10. 6. Interacts with its environment • Mosses were the earliest green plants on the earth and they helped to generate soil and change the composition of the atmosphere • What have humans done to change our environment?

  11. 7. Reproduction and heredity • The ability to produce new, genetically similar individuals, either independently (asexual) or with a partner (sexual) • Possible because of DNA

  12. 8. Adaptation & evolution • Very long term, heritable changes in a lineage of related living creatures • Happens when the individual that is best suited to the environment has the most reproductive success

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