TYPES OF CHANGES

1. BIOLOGY CHANGES:
These are physical body changes which take place in the life of living things.
• They happen on their own with the work of hormones in the body.
• Some are seen while others are not seen.
• They take place in both plants and animals.
• Once they have taken place, they are irreversible i.e the change cannot go back.
Examples:
A seed is planted and it germinates into a seedling. The seedling grows into a plant.
A seedling grows into a plant and it flowers and puts on seeds.
A hen lays eggs, the eggs are incubated and they hatch into chicks.
The chicks grow into chicken which will start laying eggs again.

The woman produces or gives birth to a baby, a baby grows into a child, the child
grows into an adult.
When a girl is born, she grows big and breasts start coming.
When a boy is born, he grows big and beards come on his chin.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES

• Young ones grow mature and become adults.

• Small ones change size and become big.
• Individuals live for a time and later die.
• Seeds germinate, grow into plants. Some grow into big tree while others flower,
put on fruits and later die.
• Biological changes are irreversible.
 2. CHEMICAL CHANGES
These are changes which take place and a new substance is formed from the old one.
EXAMPLES:
(i) Rusting
Rusting is a chemical reaction in which oxygen and moisture are needed for it to take
place.
There must be two conditions present in order for rusting to take place.
these conditions are;
Oxygen and water or moisture.
• When a nail, knife or any metal rusts another substance called iron oxide is formed. This
substance cannot be taken back or reversed.
• Many things get spoilt when they rust.
(ii) Fermentation
• This is the process by which sugar is changed into alcohol.
• People who make millet brew or malwa use fermentation process. In this process millet is
treated after making it to germinate, drying it, grinding it and then the flour is mixed with
water and put in a drum where it is left for yeast to act on the sugar in the millet and change
the sugar into alcohol.
• Also fermentation helps, people to brew banana wine or mwenge bigere and kwete from
maize.
• After sugar has been turned into alcohol, it can not be reversed back.
 RESPIR

(iii) Respiration
This is the process by which the body uses food and oxygen to produce energy, carbon
di oxide and water vapour.
In this process, food in the body is burnt down into energy. This process is not
reversible.
Respiration takes place in both plant and animals.
(iv) Rotting and decaying:
When living things die, useful bacteria make them to rot and decay by breaking them
down.
When they break down, they change into humus. Humus makes the soil fertile.
 Rotting and decaying are very good process because they reduce the volume of
organic matter in our environment. An organic matter is something which can decay
and rot e.g. leaves, plants, animals etc. An inorganic substance is something which
cannot rot e.g. polythene papers, plastics, stones etc.
(v) Burning
Burning is a chemical reaction in which oxygen and fuel are needed for it to take
place.
burning is a chemical change, because a new product is produced.
when wood, paper, cloth, grass and charcoal are burnt, ash is formed.
ash is a new substance which cannot be turned back or reversed.
 (vi) digestion
digestion is the process by which food is broken down into small simple
soluble substances which can be absorbed into the body.
once food has been digested by enzymes, it cannot be turned back. So
digestion is a chemical change.
(vii) When someone dies
drying is a chemical change, because whenever you die, you rot and break
down into humus.
You can not change back into life again.
• Characteristics of chemical changes.
• A new substance is always formed.
• The change is irreversible i.e. it cannot be changed back.
• Heat and light are sometimes used or given out.
• There is a change in weight but sometimes mass does not change.

3. PHYSICAL CHANGES
These are changes which take place in our environment and can be reversed or taken back.
EXAMPLES OF PHYSICAL CHANGES:

When you put water in a refrigerator, water turns into ice but when you heat the ice again
you get water.
When you boil water it evaporates but when you condense it again it forms water.
• When you pump air into a ball it becomes big but when you remove air, it goes back.
• When you put salt in water it dissolves and forms a salt solution but when you heat the
salt solution again it evaporates and you can recover the salt.

• The change is reversible.

• There is no change in weight.
• No heat or light is given out or absorbed.
• No new substance is formed.
 CHANGES IN WEATHER

Weather can change anytime. The change in weather is a physical change.

 It can rain in the morning and shine in the afternoon or it can shine in the morning
and rain in the afternoon.
 It can be cloudy in the morning and be clear in the afternoon or vice versa.
All weather changes are examples of physical changes and can be reversed.
 CHANGES IN THE STATE OF MATTER

• Water can change into ice by the process of freezing.

• Ice can change into water by the process of melting.
• Water can change into water vapour by the process of evaporation.
• Water vapour can change into water by the process of condensation.
• Solid iodine and nepthalene can change directly to gas without going into vapour
by the process of sublimation.
All these processes above are examples of physical changes.
 4. NATURAL CHANGES
• When an earthquake passes through an area, houses get cracks, plants and trees fall
down or die and some people lose lives. Earthquakes have killed many people in
Japan, India, Iraq, Turkey and many other parts of the world.
• When there is drought, plants and animals die, land becomes hard to dig because there
is no water.
• Sometimes there is a lot of rain such that floods kill people, animals and also destroy a
lot of property.
• It is said that long ago, the earth was hot and there was no living things on earth but
time passed and the earth cooled for us to live on it now.
 5. MAN MADE CHANGES
• Man has made many changes in our surrounding among them including the following:-
 man has built roads through forests and river valleys.
 man has built bridges across lakes and rivers.
 man can fly in the air using aeroplanes.
 many swampy areas have been reclaimed and houses built in place.
 forests have been changed into areas for agriculture.
 forests have been planted in areas where they never existed.
• Man has improved on animals and birds through cross breeding.
• Man has built very high tall building up into the sky. These buildings are called sky
scrappers.
 6. CHANGES IN THE ATMOSPHERE
• Atmosphere is the space around the earth. It has the air we breathe in called oxygen
and other gases.
• The atmosphere makes part of our environment.
• Weather is the daily condition of the atmosphere.
• The conditions may be a long period or a short period.
• Weather changes over time and there are many factors which make weather to
change.
• When weather changes, it changes the atmosphere.
• These include:- temperature, sunshine, wind, rainfall, humidity and clouds.
• A day can be windy, sunny, cloudy, hot, cold, rainy or it may have a lot of heat
• When the atmosphere is hot, plants die or wilt, water becomes scarce, food becomes
expensive and some animals die.
• When the atmosphere is windy, plants break, houses are blown off and there is a lot of
dust in the atmosphere.
• When the atmosphere is rainy, running water blocks roads, plants don’t grow well and it
becomes difficult to move.
• In other words, changes in the atmosphere depend on the factors which make or
influence weather.
 CONSEQUENCES OF VARIOUS TYPES OF CHANGES
TO PEOPLE, ANIMALS AND PLANTS.
• People change from young ones to old ones and later die.
• Animals grow old and become useless.
• Plants grow, flower and later die.
• Some animals are improved upon by cross breeding and become expensive to buy.
• Peoples buy vehicles and make their transport quick.
• People’s lives are improved upon by better standard of living.
• New varieties of seeds are produced after research work.
• People intermarry and produce different coloured people.
• Plants which grow and mature quickly are being produced through research work.
• Many trees have been cut and this has caused rise in temperature in the atmosphere because these
trees help to consumes or use carbon di oxide which rises the temperature.