Living Things

 

Living things was the main topic of the second week of the lab. I was able to learn a lot about the 8 core characteristics of living things and the different meanings of each of those on top of that. There were some terms that I was familiar with, but did not quite know what they meant. Therefore, this lesson was helpful in my understanding of living things and was a very necessary introduction I needed before furthering my knowledge on the topic. 

The 8 core characteristics of living things include: 

• Growth & Change 

• Movement 

• Responds to Stimuli 

• Metabolism 

• Reproduction 

• Cellular Composition 

• Genetics & Heredity 

• Maintains Homeostasis

Pictured above is the poster my group and I made to name the core characteristics, while also describing them in both definition and art form. The words that stuck out to me that I needed to further investigate were- stimuli, cellular composition, and homeostasis. Responding to stimuli is when living things respond to changes in light, heat, sound, etc. Cellular composition is the meaning of which all living things are made of cells. Finally, maintaining homeostasis in living things means maintaining a constant and stable environment. The others, I mostly knew what they meant, but those are the words that I found meaning after further investigating and willing to learn. 

I am able to relate a lot of what I learned during lab that I already knew. I remember learning about the basics of living things, such as what living things are and what they need to survive. Therefore, with what I learned, I was able to expand my knowledge on living things and can understand a little bit more about them through the 8 core characteristics of living things. This gives me more insight on all of the chaotic, yet beautiful way of life that all of us and other living things get to be a part of. 

Going along with that, I am going to be able to apply what I have learned to my teaching in the future. I am going to be able to be more knowledgeable on living things overall, while also being able to give more specifics and examples of what classifies living things and what else goes into being a living thing. There were many great questions and information that I took down during lab that will also be a great thing to refer back to when I am thinking about creating lesson plans that teaches over living things, while being able to have the general knowledge with that as well.