What are living things?

Living organisms have certain life processes in common. There are seven things that they need to do to count as being alive. The phrase MRS GREN is one way to remember them:

• Movement - all living things move, even plants
• Respiration - getting energy from food
• Sensitivity - detecting changes in the surroundings
• Growth - all living things grow
• Reproduction - making more living things of the same type
• Excretion - getting rid of waste
• Nutrition - taking in and using food
• There are two types of nutrition
• Heterotrophic nutrition: animals eat other living beings.
• Autotrophic nutrition: plants do not eat other living beings. They obtain their food from water, air and soil.

It can be easy to tell if something is living or not. A teddy bear might look like a bear, but it cannot do any of the seven things it needs to be able to do to count as being alive.

A car can move, it gets energy from petrol (like nutrition and respiration), it might have a car alarm (sensitivity), and it gets rid of waste gases through its exhaust pipe (excretion). But it cannot grow or make baby cars. So a car is not alive.

ORIGINS OF LIFE

In this in this post we're going to learn about the origin of life through a interesting series of videos and other resources.

The first and most relevant question is.... Can Science explain the origin of life?

EDPUZZLE: MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS OF LIFE ON EARTH
https://edpuzzle.com/media/5da0972a973aa641068cc593

Why People Need Plants

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that plants provide people with food, clothing, shelter, and many other things that we use in our daily lives.




ACTIVITY 1:
List three items you use every day.
Trace each of those items back to a plant by drawing a picture.

ACIVITY 2:
Make a list of things that people get from plants. List and discuss each item.


Compare your list with this one:



Food: vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, dairy, etc.
Oxygen: plants make this through photosynthesis
Clothing: cotton jeans, flax, and rayon fabric
Medicine: herbal teas, cancer treatment medicines developed from bark of the Yew tree, active ingredient in aspirin was developed from the bark of willow trees, etc.
Paper: from wood pulp
Furniture: lumber from trees
Cosmetics: plant dyes, plant oil fragrances, nut shell exfoliants in facial wash, etc.
Energy sources: biofuel, firewood, etc.
Shelter: lumber from trees and straw bales for homes.

ACTIVITY 3:



Distribute the following plant products to each group.

Cotton fabric
Flower
Fruit
Maple syrup
Granulated sugar packet
Perfumed vegetable soap
Vegetable
Paper
Wooden object

Discuss the origin of each product. Try to fit the using People Need Plantsworksheet, and fill out the appropriate spaces.
After groups are finished, ask one group where they placed each object.Conclusion: Humans depend on plants for survival. Variation: Instead of doing the worksheet in groups, fill it out as a class while the teacher holds up an example of each item on the list.