Characteristics of Living Things

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CharacteristicsofLiving Things
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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

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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 organisms 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

4
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.

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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 cells
  activities and determines characteristics.

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Heredity

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

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Living Things Use Energy

• Living things use energy to carry out lifes
  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

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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

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Can you identify the characteristics of life?

• http//www.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/stude
  nts/Characteristics_Student.doc
• Well look at some videos of microscopic cells
  and organisms.
• Write the characteristics of life you see on your
  handout!