Living, once living or never alive?
Check things for the signs of life (moving, breathing, sensing, growing, reproducing, excreting and needing food) and sort them into living, once living and never alive.
Core concept
In short: Decide which things are alive by checking what living things do.
Living things carry out all the life processes; a thing that shows only one or two, like fire or a car, is not alive
Topic: Living things
Living things carry out seven life processes: they move, respire (release energy: What is needed to make things move, heat up, light up or grow. All key words 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
- Choose a card and check it against the life processes.
- Place each card in the living, once living or never alive group.