Question


Living Things are Made of One or More Cells
Everything alive is made of one or more cells. That’s something that you, the bacteria living on your toilet seat, a potted plant sitting on a shelf, and the birds chirping outside your window have in common. A cell is the building block of life and the most fundamental unit of living things. A single-celled organism such as a bacterium is made of just one cell, while you are made of many.

Living Things Respond to Stimuli and Adapt to Their Environment
When you touch something hot and quickly pull your hand back, you’re responding to a stimulus (heat) and protecting yourself from danger. When a bear hibernates in the winter and an oak tree loses its leaves in the fall, these are examples of organisms adapting to their changing environment. To survive, living things need to be able to respond and adapt.


You are looking at pond water under a microscope with your lab partner and observe something moving across your field of view. Your partner claims it must be alive because it’s moving, but you aren’t so sure. How can you critique your partner’s explanation and determine if what you see is alive? Use logical reasoning as you identify and describe the major characteristics of living organisms in your response.

Write 4 sentences in your own words

I am looking for a reflection, in your own words, of what you remember from the readings in this unit. More like a journal entry than a scientific dissertation. And always, in your own words please
GPT-4o mini
Today in the lab, as I watched the tiny organism move through the pond water, I realized that movement alone isn’t enough to determine if something is alive. I remembered that living things must be made of cells and respond to their environment, which are key characteristics of life. For example, while the creature might be moving, does it respond to stimuli or adapt like other living organisms? It’s important to consider these criteria before concluding that what we see is a living being, reminding me that life is defined by more than just movement.