1. CHAPTER 1
EXPLORING AND
CLASSIFYING LIFE

2. SECTION 1- What is Science?
• SCIENCE – An organized way of studying things
and answering questions.
• Some types of science:
• 1) PHYSICS – The study of energy, matter and
motion.
• 2) CHEMISTRY – Study of elements and how they
behave
• 3) EARTH SCIENCE – Study of the universe and

3. • 4. LIFE SCIENCE – The study
of living thing (organisms)
• Types of Life Science:
• A) ZOOLOGY – Study of
animals
• B) BOTANY – study of plants
• C) ECOLOGY – Study of
organisms and their
relationship with the
environment.
• D) GENETICS- Study of how
traits are passed between
generations.

4. • SCIENTIFIC METHOD – Series of steps used to
try and solve problems.
• STEPS:
• 1. State a PROBLEM – Something that needs to
be solved.
• 2. Gather Information – DATA
• 3. Form a HYPOTHESIS – Prediction or educated
guess
• 4. Test the hypothesis – EXPERIMENT
• Parts of an experiment:
• CONTROL – Something that stays the same
• VARIABLE – something that changes
• Each Experiment should have only 1
VARIABLE.

5. • 5. Analyze results
• 6. Draw CONCLUSIONS – A logical answer to
the problem.
• THEORY – Explanation of things based on
many observations/ experiments.
• EX: Theory of Evolution, Theory of relativity
• LAW – Statements that explains how things
work in nature. They seem to be true all the
time.
• EX: Law of Gravity, Newton’s Laws of Motion

6. NEWTON’S LAW OF
GRAVITY

7. • Scientists got together in the 1970’s and
came up with a universal system of
measurement that every country in the world
would use.
• That system was called the
INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS (SI).
• This system is based on the #10
• All countries are currently using this system
except the USA.
• This system uses several terms that we
need to learn.

8. • MASS – SI Measure of the amount of matter in
an object. Doesn’t change much daily.
• SI uses GRAMS to measure mass
• WEIGHT – The measure of the amount of gravity
holding an object down. Changes daily or
depending on your location on earth. The closer
to the earth’s core you are the more you will
weigh.
• We use pounds to measure weight.
• VOLUME – The amount of space occupied by an
object.
• SI uses LITERS
• LENGTH – A measure of distance
• SI uses METERS

9. USING SI
• SI uses 3 main units: Liters, Meters and
Grams.
• Prefixes are also used to help convert between
units.
• THE PREFIXES IN SI
• Prefix Abbreviation Multiplier
• Kilo k
1000
• Hecto h
100
• Deka da
10
• Base unit (Meter, Liter, Gram) (m,l,g) 1
• Deci d .1
• Centi c .01

10. • How to convert in the SI system
• Kilo,hecto,deka,mlg,deci,centi,milli
• When every you go from large to
small, you move the decimal
that many places to the right.
• Another way of thinking of this is
by going down the scale, moves
you to the right.
• When you go from small to large,
you move the
decimal that many places to the
left.

11. Converting
Temperatures
• The US is the only country to
use the temperature scale
Fahrenheit. (F)
• All other countries use Celsius
(C) to measure temperature.
• You need to be able to convert
in between the 2 scales if you
will ever travel outside the US

12. • Anytime you start with a Fahrenheit
temperature and you want to change
it into Celsius use the following:
• F – 32
• 1.8
• So lets do an example: Say it is 56o
F and you
want to change it into C.
• First you take 56 – 32 and get 24.
• Then you take the 24 and divide it by 1.8
• Your answer in Celsius is 13.3o

13. • Now let’s go the other way from
Celsius into Fahrenheit
• (C x 1.8) + 32
• Let’s say you are going on vacation to
Haiti and the temperature there is
46o
C, what is that equal to in
Fahrenheit.
• First you take 46 x 1.8 and get 82.8
• Next you take the 82.8 and + 32 =
114.8 oF
.
• HOT HOT HOT!!!

14. • SECTION 2- LIVING THINGS
• ORGANISM – Any living thing
• What does it mean to be alive??
• CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE
• 1) Organisms must show some level of
organization, here are the levels:
• A) CELL – Basic unit of life
• B) TISSUE – Cells working together to do a
certain job. Ex: Heart tissue, brain tissue,
bone tissue, etc.
• C) ORGANS – Tissue working together to do
a certain job. EX: Heart, Kidney, Brain, etc.
• D) SYSTEM – Organs working together to do
a certain job.
• There are 10 human body system
• E) ORGANISM – A complete living thing

15. • HUMAN BODY SYSTEMS
• 1. RESPIRATORY – help breathing EX: Lungs,
windpipe, nose
• 2. SKELETAL – support EX: Femur, Skull,
Ribs
• 3. INTEGUMENTARY – protection EX: Skin,
Fingernails, Hair
• 4) DIGESTIVE – helps break down food and
get rid of solid waste.
– EX: Stomach, Large Intestine, Mouth
• 5) MUSCULAR – controls all movement
• EX: Biceps, Triceps, Tongue
• 6) EXCRETORY – gets rid of liquid waste EX:
Kidneys, Bladder
• 7) REPRODUCTIVE – Make babies EX: Testes,
Ovaries
• 8) NERVOUS – Controls feeling EX: Brain,
Spinal Cord

16. • 9) ENDOCRINE – Controls all hormones and
chemicals EX: Thyroid,
Pituitary, Ovaries
• 10) CARDIOVASCULAR (CIRCULATORY) –
Moves blood EX: Heart, Veins,
Capillaries, Arteries
• 2) Must respond to changes in environment.
• A) STIMULUS – Something an organism
responds to.
• Ex: Weather getting colder
• B) RESPONSE – The reaction of an organism
to a stimulus.
• EX: Hummingbirds flying south for the
winter
• C) HOMEOSTASTIS – The regulation of an
organism’s inside despite outside changes
• EX: Sweating when hot, Fever when sick,
etc.

17. • D) ADAPTATION – Characteristic an organism
has which makes it better able to survive in it’s
surroundings.
• EX: Tree’s losing leaves in fall, Dog’s shedding
fur, Robins migrating for the winter, etc.
• 3) Must use ENERGY – Ability to do work.
• Most energy comes either directly or indirectly
from the SUN
• 4) Must Grow and Develop
• GROWTH – to increase in size
• DEVELOPMENT – to change form in
becoming an adult.
• EX: Caterpillar to a butterfly, tadpole to a
frog

18. • LIFE SPAN – The length of
time an organism is expected
to live.
• EX: Humans - 80 years
• Mayfly 1 day
• 5) REPRODUCTION – The
ability to make similar offspring
similar to the parents.
• 6) A Place to live – when the
environment becomes to
crowded the competition for
space costs lives.
• 7) Raw Materials – Every
organism needs water, oxygen,
• Most organisms are at least 50
% water.
• You are made up of 70 %.

19. SECTION 3 – Where does life come from?
• SPONTANEOUS GENERATION – The theory
that living things could come from nonliving
things.
• EX: Rained worms, meat made maggots
• Scientists of course did not believe in this and
had to prove it wrong.
• 1668 – Francesco Redi- tested the maggots
and meat belief. Here is his experiment:
• 1) Took 2 identical raw pieces of meat and put
them into 2 identical jars.
• Covered one of them with a piece of light cloth
(so the air could get through).
• Waited
• Upon his return he found that the uncovered jar
had maggots on the meat, but the covered jar
did not.
• Since both jars did not have maggots, he
stated that SG had to be wrong.

20. REDI’S EXPERIMENT

21. • LOUIS PASTEUR – tested broth (meat
juice).
• 1) He boiled the broth to make it free of all
germs (sterile).
• 2) Then he place it into an s-shaped flask.
These flasks allowed the air to enter the
broth not the dust. All the dust gets caught
in the curve of the s.
• 3) When he returned he found no
contamination to any of the flasks.
• 4) For fun he then tilted the flasks so the
dust could enter the broth, within days the
broth was contaminated.
• He concluded that since the first test
showed no contamination, broth doesn’t
make germs but air carries them.

23. • Where did life come from?
• Earth is believed to be 4.6 billion years old.
• The oldest found life is about 3.3 billion
years old.
• ALEX OPARIN – suggests that the Earth’s
early atmosphere had no oxygen in it but
had ammonia, hydrogen, methane and
water vapor.
• He believes that these gases combined to
form the simplest of life (Bacteria) and then
the cycle began.

24. Section 4 – How are living things classified?
• Hundreds of new organisms are
discovered and named each year.
• Most of these new critters are plants or
insects.
• Most are found in the tropical rain forest.
• CLASSIFY – to group things based on
similarities.
• EX: Grocery Stores are grouped by the
type of food.
• Libraries are grouped by the type of book
• Record Stores are grouped by the CD,
tape and then by the type of music.

25. • ARISTOTLE – was the first person ever to
classify living things.
• He developed a science of classifying
and naming organisms called
TAXONOMY.
• He divided all living things into 2 large
groups which he called KINGDOMS.
• Those 2 groups were called PLANTS and
ANIMALS.
• He used 2 main characteristics to figure
out which kingdom the organism should
be placed.
• Those 2 traits were color and movement.
• If it was green and didn’t move it was a
plant
• If it wasn’t green and moved it was an
animal.

26. • Inside the Plant Kingdom there were 3
subgroups. (SIZE)
• 1)The Small plants- HERBS
• 2)The medium plants – SHRUBS
• 3)The large plants – TREES
• Inside the Animal kingdom there were
3 subgroups. (HABITAT)
• 1)The air animals – AVIAN
• 2)The water animals – AQUATIC
• 3)The land animals - TERRESTRIAL

28. ANIMAL GROUPS

29. • Kingdom is the largest of all the
taxonomic categories.
• There were many problems with
Aristotle’s system.
• EX: Frogs – they are green and
moved.
• Red Maple Trees- red and don’t
move
• Ducks- fly through the air, float in
water and nest on land.
• So improvements had to be made.

30. • CAROLUS LINNAEUS – created a better system
to classify organisms.
• His system was based on similarities in body
structures and systems, size shape, color and
the method of obtaining food.
• He also created a system for naming organisms.
• BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE – the 2 word
naming system used to name all organisms.
• This is also called the Scientific Name
The first word is called the GENUS
• The second word is called the SPECIES

31. • When organisms are named there are
several rules that must be followed:
• 1) The Genus always comes first, is
capitalized and either italicized or
underlined.
• 2) The Species always is second, is
lowercase and either italicized or
underlined.
• Only organisms of the same species can
successfully reproduce without any
problems.
• EX: Horse + Donkey = Mule
• Ligers

35. • Some examples of the scientific name in use
are:
• Canis familiaris – Dog
• Felis domesticus – Cat
• Homo sapiens – Humans
• Canis lupus – Wolf
• Since dogs and wolves share the same genus
name they are cousins. But they still do not
share species names, there is difficulty
interbreeding them
• All the different breeds of dogs are all Canis
familiaris. So they can interbreed – MUTT.

36. • These are always written in LATIN – because when
this system was created all educated folk
WORLDWIDE spoke Latin.
• PHYLOGENY – An organism’s evolutionary
history
• TODAYS CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM:
• Based on several things:
• Presence of a nucleus
• How many cells are present
• Ability to make food
• Ability to move
• DNA
• Body structure

37. • The current classification has
been expanded to 6 kingdoms.
• Lets discuss the kingdoms in
order from simplest to most
advanced.
• 1) ARCHAEBACTERIA –
one celled bacteria that live in
extreme environments. EX:
Salt water, volcanoes, sulfur
springs
• Prokaryotes
• Some make own food some do
not

38. • 2) EUBACTERIA – 1 celled bacteria that live in
normal environments, prokaryotes
• EX: streptococcus, cyanobacteria (green), E. Coli
• 3) PROTISTA – 1 or many cells, most live in
water. Eukaryotes EX: Paramecium, Amoeba,
Euglena

39. • 4) Fungi – Have 1 or many cells.
Eukaryotes EX: Mushrooms, molds, and
yeasts
• 5)Plants – many cells Eukaryotes EX:
roses, grass, apple tree, moss

40. • 6) Animal – many celled and most advanced
kingdom EX: Humans, monkeys, sponges
• DO THE CHART ON THE BOARD!!!!!

41. • PROKARYOTE – Organisms without a true nucleus.
The nuclear material (DNA) is there but the
membrane around it is missing.
• EX: Archaebacteria, Eubacteria
• EUKARYOTE – Organisms with a true nucleus.
Have a membrane plus all nuclear material.
• EX: Animals, protists, fungus, plants

43. Ways organisms get food
• 1) Producers – Can make their own food by
photosynthesis
• EX: Plants, green bacteria, green protists
• 2) Consumers – Can not make their own food
so they must go and get it somehow.
• 3 TYPES OF CONSUMERS:
• 1) PARASITE – Feed off of another living
thing. Usually just harms the host.
• EX: Fleas, Ticks, Leech

44. • 2) DECOMPOSER
(SAPROPHYTE) – Feed
off of already dead
things
• EX: Humans, Flies,
Crows, Turkey Vultures
• 3) PREDATOR – Hunts,
kills and eats it’s prey
immediately
• EX: Tigers, Grizzly
Bears, Eagles, Red
Tailed Hawks

45. • THE TAXONOMIC GROUPS
• From biggest to smallest
• KINGDOM
• PHYLUM
• CLASS
• ORDER
• FAMILY
• GENUS
• SPECIES

46. • 1.5 million species have been identified so far.
• Scientists believe there are between 5-30 million
total species on Earth.
• SUMMARY OF CLASSIFICATION
• 1) Aristotle started out with 2 – plant and animal
• 2)Then when the microscope was created a third
kingdom, the protist evolved.
• 3) The # went to 5 – animals, plants, fungi, protist
and bacteria (Moneran)
• 4) Now there are 6 – animals, plants, fungi, protists,
eubacteria, and archaebacteria.
• In the future a 7th
??? - Viral

47. • Species Diversity – Great Variety of plants,
animals and other species living in an area.
• The more diverse an area is, the more stable it is.
• In 1 hectare (50 acres) of rain forest there are
around 200 species of plants and 1000 species of
animals.
• So this is a region of excellent species diversity.
• Unfortunately every minute there are about 1000
acres of rain forest cut down by humans.

49. • Extinction – When a
species no longer exists.
• Examples of extinct
species: Dodo bird,
passenger pigeon, Carolina
Parakeet, Tasmanian Wolf,
Dinosaurs

50. • Endangered – Animals
that are close to
becoming extinct.
• EX: Florida Panther, Bog
Turtle, Gray Wolf,
Manatee

51. • IDENTIFYING ORGANISMS
• Common names – scientists do not use common
names because they can be very confusing. Often
there are to many names for the same organism.
• EX: Groundhog and woodchuck
• Puma, Cougar and Mtn. Lion all the same.
• Instead scientists only use scientific names

52. • Other tools that help identify
organisms
• Field Guide – A book of traits
and pictures to identify
organisms.
• Dichotomous Keys – A detailed
list of traits used to classify
organisms