2. Characteristics of Living
Things
What makes something
living or nonliving?
Is a rock living? What
about a piece of grass?
Or an icicle?
There are 6
characteristics of
living things
3. #1: Living Things Have Cells
All living things are
composed of one or
more cells
What is a cell? A cell
is a membrane-
covered structure that
contains all the
material necessary for
life
Unicellular = one cell;
multicellular = more
than one cell
4. #2: Living Things Sense and
Respond to Change
A stimulus is a change that affects the activity of an
organism.
-Examples: chemicals, gravity, light, sound,
hunger, or anything else that activates a
response
Homeostasis is the maintenance of a stable internal
environment
Allows us to keep our internal environment in check when
external environment is changing
Example: When it gets cold outside, our internal temp still
stay 98.6 degrees
5. Homeostasis is kind of like a see-saw, which your body wants to keep
balanced.
-Outside temp is cold, but our bodies don’t plunge into a low
body temp—it works hard to balance our temp at 98.6 degrees, no
matter what the outside weather!
6. #3: Living Things Reproduce
Sexual reproduction:
two parents produce
offspring that is similar
to both parents
Asexual reproduction:
single parent produces
offspring that is identical
to the parent
7. #4: Living Things Have DNA
The cells of ALL living
things contain the
molecule
“deoxyribonucleic acid,
or DNA
DNA controls structure
and function of the
cells
Heredity: passing
copies of DNA from
parent to offspring
8. #5: Living Things Use Energy
Organisms need and use energy to carry out
activities in life
Metabolism: the total of all the chemical
activities that the organism performs
9. #6: Living Things Grow and
Develop
We all GROW! It doesn’t
matter if you are a multicellular
or unicellular organism
We all develop! As we grow,
we go through different stages
in our lives.
Example: US! Baby->child->teen-
>adult
Acorn seedling sapling
tree
11. Necessities of Life
Organisms need 4things to live:
1. Water
Your body is made up of 70 %
water
Most of the chemical reactions
involved in metabolism require
water
12. 2. Air
A mixture of gases (oxygen and
carbon dioxide)
Organisms on land get oxygen from
the air
Marine animals get dissolved oxygen
from the water or by coming up for
air
Green plants, algae, and some
bacteria need carbon dioxide in
addition to oxygen to undergo their
food making process called
photosynthesis
13. 3. Food
Gives us energy and raw materials
needed to carry on life processes such
as replacing cells
Producers: make their own food
Consumers: get food by eating other
organisms
Decomposers: break down nutrients of
dead organisms or animal wastes
14. 4. Shelter
(a place to live)
All living
things need a
place to live
that has all of
the
necessities
of life (enough
space, food,
water, etc.)
15. 5 Building Blocks of Cells
1) Proteins:
Molecule made up
of amino acids;
helps build and
repair body
structures.
Example: protein
hemoglobin is in red
blood cells and
binds to oxygen to
deliver it throughout
the body
16. 2) Carbohydrates:
molecules made up of
sugar
A) Simple
carbohydrates: one
sugar molecule, like
table sugar
B) Complex
carbohydrates:
hundreds of sugar
molecules, such as
plants (potato, whole
wheat)
17. 3) Lipids: do not
dissolve in water;
include fats and
steroids
A) phospholipids are
the molecules that
form much of the cell
membrane; the head
is attracted to water
but the tail is not—the
tails attract to form
two layers