7th Grade Science

Cambridge Lower Secondary

Unit 4 Grouping and

identifying
organisms
4.1 Characteristics of
living organisms
 Living and non-living
● How can we know when something is alive or dead?
 So how can we
differentiate between
living and non-living?
“Seven characteristics of
living organisms”
 Movement (M)
● The ability of organisms to change position
 Respiration (R)
● The process of breaking down food to produce energy
 Sensitivity (S)
● The ability to notice and respond to changes happening
around them
 Sensitivity (S)
● The ability to notice and respond to changes happening
around them
 Growth (G)
● A permanent increase in size
 Reproduction (R)
● The ability to produce new individuals of same kind
 Excretion (E)
● Getting rid of waste materials, such as carbon dioxide
 Nutrition (N)
● Feeding
● Taking in substances that are needed for growth or to
provide energy
Activity (pg 129)
Is a car alive?
fuel
4.2 Viruses
 What is a virus?
● They are non-living things even smaller than our cells
● They are complicated assemblies of molecules, including
proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates
● They can do nothing until they enter a living cell
Some common examples of viruses
Some common examples of viruses
Some common examples of viruses
Some common examples of viruses
 Some common examples of viruses

Coronavirus
Some common examples of viruses
Different variants of coronavirus
Most recent variant: Arcturus
Viewing virus needs a special type of
microscope
 How do viruses replicate?

Killed
and
burst out
 How do viruses replicate?
● First, they have to attach themselves to living cells by
using the little spikes on their coats
● After that, they will enter the living cells
● When they are inside, they force the cells to copy
instructions on its RNA (genetic material) and make many
new viruses “REPLICATION”
● Cells are killed
● New viruses burst out and ready to infect more cells
How do viruses replicate? (Video)
https://youtu.be/QHHrph7zDLw
How does vaccination prevent the
infection of virus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8wCk8FU7_o
4.3 What is a species?
 What is a species?
● A group of organisms that can reproduce with others in
the same species, but not with members of a different
species
Activity (pg 135)
Comparing two
species of elephant
All organisms in a species share the
same characteristics but they are not
all identical to each other

Variation in
a species
They are all under dog species but different breeds/variation (results of
interference of people to selective breeding them)
How do scientists decide whether two
organisms belong to the same species?
● They try to find out if they can reproduce with each other
● Normally same species will reproduce with each other to
produce fertile (has ability to reproduce) offspring
Some rare cases: Male lion breeds with
female tiger to produce “liger”

HOWEVER, ligers are infertile so they cannot have their own offspring.

They are known as “HYBRID”

Some rare cases: Male lion breeds with
female tiger to produce “hybrid”
Some rare cases: Male lion breeds with
female tiger to produce “hybrid”
Some rare cases: Horse breeds with
donkey to produce “mule”
EXTRA Binomial naming system
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Brainstorming
questions
similar
different