Many of us start our year by introducing our class with the Characteristics of Life. This is basically an overview of what an entire year of biology will cover and so using it as introduction works out really well. The drawback....it can be a bit dry of a topic. It's hard to find true labs that cover the information and lecturing on it can be pretty boring. Here are a few ideas to teach the concept, and I will discuss my favorite lab to do on the first day of school.
Characteristics of Life that I discuss:
a. Order—the highly ordered structure that typifies life, made of cells
b. Reproduction—the ability of organisms to reproduce their own kind,
c. Growth and development—consistent growth and development
d. Energy processing—the use of chemical energy to power an organism’s activities and chemical reactions,
e. Response to the environment—an ability to respond to environmental stimuli,
f. Regulation—an ability to control an organism’s internal environment within limits that sustain life; maintains homeostasis
g. Evolutionary adaptation—adaptations evolve over many generations, as individuals with traits best suited to their environments have a better chance of survival
h. contains genetic material- DNA
Idea #1
Jigsaw/Gallery Walk----Create 7 groups. Each group will be in charge of researching one of the characteristics of life. The research can be displayed in a few different ways:
A google slides/ppt can be shared with the entire class and each group gets a slide to fill out with the information they research.
Each group can create a poster. I like to give students butcher paper to use.
Groups can present their information to the whole class or the class can complete a gallery walk. Hang up the posters around the room and have students travel to each one. A student can present the information or students can fill out a notes sheet.
Idea #2
Start with a few notes, discussing the characteristics of life. Then have students create an acrostic using the first letter of each characteristic. They can create a "poster" using Google Slides, PowerPoint, Canva, etc. or just good old fashioned computer paper. Have them add pictures to their poster to represent each property.
Idea #3
This is the one I currently use in class and is my favorite. I like it because it lets the kids discover the characteristics for themselves, it has movement, and allows students to work with groups. More than anything, they love working with the worms! It is a novelty, and easily remembered.
The downside, you have to purchase live worms. I purchased mine a few years ago through a local worm farm, and started a compost bin. Then I can use them year after year and the kids think its cool to have a "worm farm" in class.
The lab starts with a pre-reading and questions about the worms morphology and behavior. Then each characteristic has a separate lab activity that involves the worms. Here is an example of one of them.
You can purchase the lab here on Amazon.
These are the worms that I have purchased in the past: https://amzn.to/3ocPx5J.
Idea #4
Create stations with different objects/organisms. Have students decide if that object/organism is living or not living. Some of these items could include: coral, plant/flowers, rock, glass of water, jars of specimens, picture or stuffed virus, yeast, bacteria plate, dead log/twig, acorn, cloth....list can go on and on. Pick items that could easily be confused (dead vs alive) and things students often have misconceptions about. In my years, water, rocks, and the sun are often confused.
After students move through the stations, you could have them create a list of properties that the living organisms share and that the non-living do not have in common. You could do this with a T-Chart or Venn Diagram.
Come back together, discuss, and lead them to a final list of characteristics.
Idea #5
The next idea is one that I used during the pandemic, when students were all online. This could be adapted to in-person or used just as is.
Slide #1 contains various definitions of life throughout time. Students try to group them together by similarities of the definitions.
Slide #2 contains the same definitions but now they are going to try and put them in order by oldest to newest.
Slide #3 students will try to figure out which ones are pre-DNA and post-DNA.
Slide #4 the groups will come up with their own definitions of life.
Slide #5 is the answer key to the date orders.
I would then wrap up the class with characteristics of life, and students can compare their definitions to the 7 characteristics. Here is a copy of the slides if you would like to try it out. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YVVsCoMcMadtg0tXSK0687rKPtzIUiPI0c1IRKlSgrA/edit?usp=sharing
Hope this gives you some ideas to take back to your own classroom.
Happy Teaching!
Mrs. Townsend