Is It Alive?

Introduction

Introduce students to the concept of life using this fun-filled, thought-provoking method of Concept Attainment. In concept attainment, students look at examples of items that contain attributes of the concept and compare them to examples that do not contain attributes of the concept. Samples are separated into two groups; “yes” examples, those that contain attributes of the concept, and “no” examples or non-examples, those that do not contain attributes of the concept. The students look for connections between the “yes” examples, in this case words on a set of cards, and then develop the concept themselves. Once they have discovered the concept, the proper terminology can be assigned. For example, the students may develop the concept that all the words are the names of cities that contain the seat of government for a country; the terminology assigned to this would be national capitols. In this activity, the examples are living organisms.

Concepts

• Living

• Nonliving
• Organismal diversity

Background

What does it mean to be alive? On a walk in your neighborhood you may discover many living organisms and many other things that are nonliving. You will notice that some living things you encounter move, such as cats and dogs, and some do not, like trees and shrubs. You may also notice that many of the nonliving things do not move, like rocks and fire hydrants. However, some nonliving things do move like streams and clouds, for example. So what are the traits that all living things share?

• All living organisms are organized or have an ordered structure. Living things are made of the basic building blocks of life, cells. Organisms may be composed of one cell or they may be multicellular. These cells, working together, form an ordered system—the organism.
• All living species of organisms must reproduce for life to continue. If an individual does not reproduce then he does not pass on his genes; however, if a species does not reproduce then the whole species becomes extinct.
• All living organisms grow and develop. Organisms undergo changes during their lives. All living organisms begin as a single cell and increase in size over their lifetime.
• All living organisms respond to stimulus. Organisms have structures and exhibit behaviors that allow them to adjust to the conditions of their environment.

Materials

Safety Precautions

Although the materials in this activity are considered non-hazardous, please follow all normal laboratory safety guidelines.

Disposal

The items in this kit are meant to be reused and should be stored for future use.

Prelab Preparation

1. On the wall, whiteboard, or chalkboard, place the “yes” and “no” header cards so that the yes examples will be on the left and the non-examples will be on the right.
2. Stack the cards in the following order: Coral, River, Sponge, Yeast, Crystal, Cave Formation, Mold, Algae, Mushroom, Television, Fire, Tree, Computer, Calculator, Grass, Bacteria, Rock, Fly, Horse, Elephant

Procedure

1. Tell the students that cards with either examples or non-examples of a concept will be shown.
2. Point to the “yes” header and tell the students that examples of the concept will be placed on the left, under the “yes” header card.
3. Point to the “no” header and tell them that non-examples will be placed on the right, under the “no” header card.
4. Tell the students that each time a card is held up they are to vote. If a student thinks the example is a “yes” the student should point their right thumb up and if they think it is a “no,” point it down. Everyone should vote for every card, to ensure total participation.
5. Show the students the first card that says “Coral.” Tell the students that the first example is always a “yes” example and place it under the “yes” header card.
6. Show them the second card that says “River.” Tell the students that the second example is always a “no.” At this point it should be clear whether the students understand how to vote and where all the examples will be placed. This a good time to remind them that all examples under the “yes” have some similar attributes that combine to form a specific concept. The items under the “no” do not necessarily have similar attributes. The non-examples do not contain the attributes that exemplify the concept and are not necessarily, as a group, another concept.
7. Continue placing the cards under the appropriate header in the order in which they are in the stack. Remind students that they should not vocalize the attributes of the concept or the concept itself; they should just vote using the appropriate method. Students will form their own hypothesis regarding the concept and revise this hypothesis every time there is a change in the trends of the data. One trend in this activity that changes is that the first examples are items from the ocean, and then yeast is revealed.
8. When students seem to know the concept, ask them to give another example of the concept—not the concept itself. This works well before a change occurs in the data trends.
9. When most students seem to know the concept, list them on the board. As more examples are shown they may want to refine the attributes.
10. Once the students have discovered that the objects are all alive, introduce the terms living and nonliving.

Teacher Tips

• When students think they have figured out the concept, write their examples on the board or on note cards and place them under the “yes” header card.

• Attributes may be written on the board and reevaluated every few rounds to allow students to see how the trends in the data may change their hypothesis. Allow students to present the attributes.
• Masking tape, magnetic tape or hook and loop fasteners may be applied to each card so they can be temporarily attached to surfaces.
• This activity could be presented after the lesson on living organisms versus nonliving material to test for understanding, instead of as an introduction.
• There is a great deal of debate on the status of viruses as living or nonliving. This may prove to be a good topic for research, discussion or debate.
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