Scribd
Upload
196 views12 pages

Characteristics of Living Things Explained

Living things are made of cells, take in nutrients and use energy. They produce waste that must be removed. Living things respond to stimuli, grow and reproduce. Specifically, unicellular organisms are single cell organisms that remove waste through membranes and reproduce through cell division, while multicellular organisms are made of many cells, remove waste through specialized structures and systems, and can reproduce sexually with a mate or asexually.

Uploaded by

api-310503032
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
196 views12 pages

Characteristics of Living Things Explained

Living things are made of cells, take in nutrients and use energy. They produce waste that must be removed. Living things respond to stimuli, grow and reproduce. Specifically, unicellular organisms are single cell organisms that remove waste through membranes and reproduce through cell division, while multicellular organisms are made of many cells, remove waste through specialized structures and systems, and can reproduce sexually with a mate or asexually.

Uploaded by

api-310503032
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING THINGS

LIVING THINGS…ARE MADE OF CELLS

¡ Cell: the basic structural and functional unit of life. They have structures that enable them to carry out
life processes.
¡ Life processes include:
¡ Chemical reactions to help obtain and use energy
¡ Break down nutrients
¡ Build molecules
¡ Grow
¡ Copy genetic material
¡ Repair injuries
¡ Excretes wastes
LIVING THINGS…TAKE IN NUTRIENTS

¡ Nutrients are substances that living things need but cannot make for
themselves.
¡ Usually obtained from food

¡ Consumers eat other organisms for food (ex. Humans)


¡ Producers produce their own food (ex. Plants)
LIVING THINGS… USE ENERGY

¡ Energy is used to carry out life processes, it comes from the food consumed or
produced
¡ Cellular respiration is the process where energy is released from food
¡ Energy is used for many purposes (ex. Growing, response to changes, movement,
sleep)
LIVING THINGS…PRODUCE WASTE THAT MUST BE REMOVED

¡ All cells have structures that store and remove waste


¡ Waste are substances that are harmful if they are not removed
UNICELLULAR VS MULTICELLULAR

¡ Unicellular organisms are ONE cell organisms


(ex. Bacteria and some protists)
¡ Waste is removed through the outer membrane or
from a structure called a vesicle
¡ Multicellular organisms are made up of many cells
¡ Waste is removed from structures or systems of the
organism
LIVING THINGS…RESPOND TO STIMULI

¡ A stimulus is anything that causes a living thing to react in a certain way


¡ Living things respond to internal stimuli- things that occur inside their
bodies (ex. Stomach growling, feeling thirsty)
¡ They also respond to external stimuli from their surroundings (ex. Dog
ears flick up to noise at the door)
LIVING THINGS…GROW

¡ All living things grow by increasing in size, or in the number or cells, or


BOTH
LIVING THINGS…REPRODUCE

¡ Organisms reproduce in different ways:


¡ Unicellular bacteria divide to produce two identical cells. They have the same
genetic material.
¡ Other organisms must have a mate to reproduce. The offspring differ from
parents.
UNICELLULAR VS MULTICELLULAR…AGAIN

¡ Unicellular organisms
¡ Have structures to sense and respond to changes in their environment
¡ Grow by increasing in size

¡ Multicellular organisms
¡ Multicellular animals have sense organs and/or a nervous system to respond to stimuli
¡ Grow by increasing number of cells
ASSIGNMENT!
YAYYYY!!!!
T CHART– UNICELLULAR
VS MULTICELLULAR
ORGANISMS

¡ Create a T-chart to compare


and contrast the characteristics
between unicellular and
multicellular organisms.
¡ On page 1 of your notebook.

You might also like