Characteristics of Living Things – Living or Non-living and the Three Life Functions
BiologyCell BiologyAges 11–12
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Use it with your class: students open it from a link or a QR code, with no account needed.
Next in Cell Biology
Test eight specimens – a bean seed, a virus, fire, a robot, yeast, a salt crystal, a mushroom and a dead leaf – for movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion, nutrition and cells, then sort each one as living, non-living or a border case. A second screen compares nutrition, interaction and reproduction in eight organisms, from autotrophs to heterotrophs and from budding to seeds.
Lesson: Characteristics of living things; the seven life processes; life functions: nutrition, interaction (relation) and reproduction
What it shows
Living things share a set of life processes: movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition, and they are made of cells. One process alone proves nothing: a robot moves and senses, fire seems to grow, feed and give off waste, and a crystal grows. Only a thing that shows them all at some stage of its life is living, so a dormant seed counts, while a dead leaf, made of dead cells, does not. Viruses copy themselves only inside a host cell and sit on the border of life. A second screen compares how organisms feed, respond and reproduce.
How to use
In Living or non-living?, choose a specimen from the list or the row of cards. Tap a test tile, or press Test all, and read the evidence below the picture. Then press Living, Non-living or Border case; the table collects every mark. In Life functions, choose an organism and a life function to watch it feed, respond to a stimulus or reproduce, then answer the tasks.
Parameters you can change
- Screen Living or non-living?, Life functions
- Specimen Bean seed, Virus, Fire, Robot, Yeast, Salt crystal, Mushroom, Dead leaf
- Organism Strawberry plant, Sensitive plant, Human, Amoeba, Yeast, Mushroom, Cyanobacterium, Hydra
- Life function Nutrition, Interaction, Reproduction
Questions to explore
- Why is one life process, such as movement, not enough to show that something is living?
- How can a dry seed be living when it shows almost no life processes?
- How do autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition differ, and which organisms here use each?
