Week 01 · Living or Not

Thursday

Reading the characteristics table

// What every living thing does

⏱ about 20 min

Thursday: Reading the Characteristics Table

Raven spreads a printed table across the Windowsill, right beside the seed jar. "This is the real list from the biology text."

Rocket peers at the jar first. "No roots yet." Then he reads the table. "Eight rows. We know these."

"What do you notice about the tricky ones?" Raven asks. "A river flows, a fire grows, a crystal gets bigger."

Rocket thinks. "A fire uses energy and grows. But it has no cells. And it cannot reproduce by passing on DNA."

Nova hovers over the table. "Count how many rows a fire gets a yes in," she says.

"Two, maybe three," Rocket says. "Living things get all eight." Raven smiles. "Now you are reading data."

The table from the biology text

Concepts of Biology, an open college textbook, names eight characteristics that all groups of living organisms share.

Here they are with the text's own explanations, shortened. Read every row before you judge any object.

A living thing shows all eight, even if some are slow or hard to see. A nonliving thing may show one or two.

Characteristic	What the text says, in short
Order	Highly organized structures made of one or more cells
Sensitivity or response to stimuli	Organisms respond to diverse stimuli, such as light or touch
Reproduction	DNA containing genes is passed along to offspring
Adaptation	A fit to the environment, a result of evolution by natural selection
Growth and development	Grow and develop according to instructions coded in genes
Regulation	Keep a relatively stable internal environment, such as body temperature
Energy processing	Use a source of energy: from the Sun, or from molecules taken in
Evolution	Populations change over time as the environment changes

USE THE TABLE

Read the question.
Tap your answer.

A candle flame grows, uses energy and flickers in a breeze. How many of the eight does it clearly show?

A dog shivers on a cold day to stay warm. Which row is that?

Which characteristic is too slow to observe at a windowsill in twelve weeks?

Object and claim	True or false?
A river flows and gets wider, so it is alive.	?
A dried bean is alive even though it looks still.	?
A salt crystal that grows in a jar of salt water is alive.	?
A sprout that bends toward the window is responding to a stimulus.	?

WHY THIS EXERCISEReal data tables settle arguments. Growth alone does not make something alive.

Scientists use ____ characteristics together to define life.

Reproduction passes ____, the genetic material, to offspring.

Every living thing is made of one or more ____. Type one word.

WHY THIS EXERCISENext week you find out that some living things are a single one of these.

Try it

Check the seed jar. Is the towel still damp? Add a spoonful of water if it is drying.
Look at each seed closely. Has any seed swollen or wrinkled? Record it in your data table.
Hold a dry spare seed next to a planted one. Note any difference in size or color.

Try this

Choose any object within reach. Go down the eight rows aloud and give it a yes or no for each.
Write its total number of yes answers in your Windowsill Log.

Draw a flame, a crystal and a bean sprout. Under each, write the number of the eight characteristics it shows.

Pick something nonliving that fools people. Explain, row by row, which characteristics it lacks.Which of the eight characteristics was hardest to understand? Write it in your own words.Record today's seed check: date, towel dampness and any change in any seed.

Careful reading. Tomorrow you look inside a seed, check your plant prediction and review the week.

Grown-up checked my answers

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