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Biology Understanding Life
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Objectives for today: 
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Biology Understanding Life
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Objectives for today:
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Exactly what life is and how it starts is one of the most difficult problems in science. There is no simple statement that can be used to define life. The only sure way to define life is to describe its characteristics.
The 7 Characteristics of Life:
1. Living Things are Composed of Cells:
* Single-cell organisms have everything they need to be self-sufficient.
* In multicellular organisms, specialization increases until some cells do only certain things
2. Living Things Have Different Levels of Organization:
* Both molecular and cellular organization.
* Living things must be able to organize simple substances into complex ones.
* Living things organize cells at several levels:* Tissue - a group of cells that perform a common function.
* Organ - a group of tissues that perform a common function.
* Organ system - a group of organs that perform a common function.
* Organism - any complete living thing.
3. Living Things Use Energy:
* Living things take in energy and use it for maintenance and growth.
. 4. Living Things Respond To Their Environment:
* Living things will make changes in response to a stimulus in their environment.
* A behavior is a complex set of responses.5. Living Things Grow:
* Cell division - the orderly formation of new cells.
* Cell enlargement - the increase in size of a cell. Cells grow to a certain size and then divide.
* An organism gets larger as the number of its cells increases.6. Living Things Reproduce:
* Reproduction is not essential for the survival of individual organisms, but must occur for a species to survive.
* All living things reproduce in one of the following ways:7. Living Things Adapt To Their Environment:
* Adaptations are traits giving an organism an advantage in a certain environment.
* Variation of individuals is important for a healthy species.
Answer the following questions.
In a word document, answer the following questions. Save the file as usual with the middle being _21_ and the heading "Organization of Life".
1. List and describe the 7 characteristics of life.
2. There are many theories used to describe how life started on Earth. Use the links provided for information to write one paragraph about each of these theories:
* panspermia
* carbonaceous chondrite
3. Another theory about the origins of life on Earth is called creationism. Read the description of creation from the first chapter of Genesis
in the King James version of the Bible.
a. Who wrote the book of Genesis?
b. On which day did plants appear?
c. On which day did the sun and moon appear?
d. On which day did life appear in the oceans?
e. On which day did animals that walk on the land appear?
f. What was the last living thing to be created?
Assignment #1
