Week 1 Living vs. Nonliving


Week 1 Living Vs. Nonliving


What question are we investigating?

The question that we were investigating in this lab was "What characteristics makes something living?"

What did we do in lab to investigate this question?

We did several different activities to investigate this lab was organizing an array of images into categories of living vs. nonliving. These images consisted of objects like bacteria, the sun, a butterfly, a tree stump, fire, and a leaf. Although this activity seems like it would be easy, our group was finding difficulties in wrapping our heads around the details of if a virus was living or non living. As a class we discussed different aspects and criteria we thought made something living. To deeper understand what make something living vs. nonliving, we each dissected a flower to look at its functions. We specifically analyzed the flowers reproductive system, looking at how it reproduces as it's own entity and what functions it has in order to do so. We than return to the large group and reassessed our list, challenging what we had and seeing if they were really a characteristic of a living thing. 

What did we figure out?

After the activities and investigations we conducted our class came to a concise list of what makes a object living. This list included  the ability to reproduce, the ability to take in and use energy, response to stimuli, and having an organized structure. 

What are new or remaining question after the investigation?

One question I still have after completing this lab is that when it comes to controversial things like viruses, how do they decide if it is non living or living aside from the characteristics? 

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