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Grade 6 Beginner About 10 min Version 1 Awaiting review Free

Living, once living or never alive?

Living things carry out seven life processes: they move, respire (release energy from food), sense and respond to their surroundings, grow, reproduce, excrete waste and need nutrition (food). A thing is living only if it can do all of these during its life. Some non-living things seem to show one or two: a car moves and burns fuel, and fire grows and needs air. Things that were once part of a living thing, like wood, a dry leaf or cotton, are not alive now, but they were.

What you will learn

  • List the seven life processes.
  • Decide whether something is living, once living or never alive.
  • Explain why a seed is alive but fire is not.

Before you start

  • None.

Materials

  • Pictures or real examples: a goat, a mango tree, a mushroom, an earthworm, a bean seed, yoghurt bacteria, a stone, water, fire, a car, a robot toy, a wooden table, a dry leaf, a cotton shirt

Equipment

  • Hand lens

Procedure

  1. Choose a card and check it against the life processes.
  2. Place each card in the living, once living or never alive group.