VHS+Science+Lesson+10

Today we are going to learn about diversity and major groups of living things.

How many living things do you see here?

What do you think they are doing?

What does this remind you of?



All living things share basic characteristics. Scientists classify living things by the characteristics they share, such as the kind of cells they have. You can see these characteristics in the living things you observe.

Living things can be sorted in 6 big groups called kingdoms. Archaebacteria

Eubacteria

Protists

Fungi

Plants

Animals

Which group do you think we are a part of?



(form students into groups, each with a person or staff who is able to write. Give each group paper/pencil) = Observations =

When you observe, you use your senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. To observe something as a scientist, follow these steps.

1) Carefully pay attention to how it looks, sounds, and behaves. 2) Record your observations.

Let's look at this picture and how they recorded their observations.





Now let's observe this deer.

Ask yourself, "where does it live?", "what are it's colors?", and "how does it get it's energy?"

media type="youtube" key="gFel9ZO8XKI" width="420" height="315"

(ask group to share notes).

How can we tell if a thing is alive or not?

If it's alive...

It is made of one or more cells.

It takes in and uses energy.

It can keep a constant inside environment. It responds to the outside environment.

It reproduces.

Part 2:

One of the main ways to begin classifying a living thing is to observe it's cells, the basic unit of life. The tiniest living things on Earth consist of just one cell. They are unicellular. All other living things are multicellular.



This means that they have two or more cells.

Multicelluar living things have cells that work together. The cells are specialized. This means they do specific jobs in the body. In a plant, for example, some cells are specialized to take in energy from the sun and others are specialized to turn this energy into food.

What are some multicellular things you can see from your desk?

= The Six Kingdoms = media type="youtube" key="u90WvBZe-tY" width="560" height="315"

When biologists classify living things, they depend on what they can observe. Long ago, they classified everything they observed as ether a plant or an animal. Today, using laboratory tools to study cells, biologists classify organisms into 6 kingdoms.

Archaebacteria

Archaebacteria is a unicellular organism that generally live in places where all other organisms would die. Some examples are hot deep-sea vents and salty places like the Great Salt Lake.

Eubacteria

Eubacteria is a unicellular organism (like Archaebacteria) that live in nearly every place on Earth. Many live inside other organisms and help them break down food to get energy. Some make poisons that can cause sickness in other living things.

Protists

Protists can be unicellular and multicellular. Plant-like protists are producers in an ecosystem.

Fungi

Fungi are multicellular and are decomposers. Mushrooms are made of cells that are specialized to reproduce. The mold you might see growing on an orange is also the reproducing part of a fungus. The bodies of fungi grow into their food source.

Plants

Plants are multicellular and are all producers. They cannot move from place to place, but they can respond to light, touch, and gravity. Mosses are plants that need to live in watery places.

Their simple bodies cannot move water from one part to another.





Other plants have specialized cells to carry water and can live in dryer places.





Animals are multicellular and are all consumers. They get energy from eating other living things. All animals can move from place to place, sometimes very quickly!

Two main groups of animals are those with backbones and those without. Most animals have no backbone. These inclue worms and anthropods (insects, spiders, and shrimp). There are more anthropods on Earth than any other kind of animal.



Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (including humans) all have backbones.

What makes all plants different from all animals? (1 - plants are producers, animals are consumers. 2 - plants cannot move from place to place, animals can move from place to place.)