Unit 4-Living Environment

• Living things


  • Are cells or made up of cells
  • Feed or nourish
  • Use oxygen to produce energy from food in a process called respiration
  • Give off carbon dioxide as a waste product of respiration
  • Respond to stimuli
  • Reproduce their own kind
  • Adapt to their environment and as a result become more able to reproduce
  • Grow
• Kingdoms of living things

  • Plants
  • Animals
  • Fungi
  • Protista
  • Monera
• Plant cell


  • Have a cell wall - outer protective structure made of cellulose, fixed shape
  • Have chloroplast - make food for plant & give the green color to most plant leaves
  • Have a large water filled vacuole
• Animal cell


  • Lack a cell wall, no fixed shape
  • Lack chloroplast - can not make own food
  • Lack large vacuole - have smaller vacuoles
• Both plant and animal cells have a Cell membrane, Nucleus, Cytoplasm, Mitochondria, Rough endoplasmic reticulum, Smooth endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi body
• All living organisms contain genetic information which is passed from one generation to the next
• Humans have selectively bred Plants, Animals Fungi, Protist and Monera for food and medicine
• Ecosystem


  The combination of the different biological communities, together with their physical environment
• Food chain


  Linear feeding relationship in an ecosystem
• Food web


  Network of feeding relationships made up of two or more food chains
• Food chain pyramid


  Population size (and percentage of food energy available) at each trophic level
• Living things depend on other living things as well as non-living things
• It is important to clarify misconceptions and build the foundational knowledge of science concepts
• Build upon the prior knowledge of students and connect to the common examples, experiments and demonstrations when teaching