SIX CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES

OF LIVING THINGS
WEEK #1 MODULE 1
OBJECTIVES:

1. Describe the six important characteristic features of living things that

serve to separate them from the non-living things.
2. Discuss the importance of studying the characteristics of living things.
3. Make and present a comic strip featuring one of the six characteristic
feature of
living things as a theme.
4. Make a simple collage showing the six important characteristic features
of living things.
1. What do a bacterium and a whale shark
have in common?
2. Do they share characteristics with
us?
 All living organisms, from the smallest
bacterium to the largest whale shark, share
certain characteristics of life. Without these
characteristics, there is no life.
What are the six characteristic
features of living things that
separate them from the
nonliving things?
To be classified as a living thing, an object must have all six of the
following characteristic features:

1. Chemical composition

2. Form and size

3. Irritability

4. Growth

5. Metabolism

6. Reproduction
https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/
ck-12-biology-flexbook-2.0/
section/1.4/primary/lesson/
characteristics-of-life-bio
 Chemical Composition:
❏All living things—even the simplest
life forms—are composed mainly of
four chemical elements such as carbon
(C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), and
nitrogen (N) in various but definite
proportion.
 Chemical Composition:
❏These four elements occur with
lesser amounts of other elements.
❏These elements, when combined
with one or more atoms of
carbon, form complex organic
molecules, together, they make
the living substance known as the
protoplasm of plant or animal.
2. Form and Size
❏ Each type of living organism usually has a definite form and
characteristic size. Nonliving materials often vary in both size and
form; mineral crystals are quite constant in form but vary in size.
2. Form and Size
3. Growth:
 All living things growby developing new parts between or
within older ones.

 Thus, growth occurs by addition from within. This is

growth by intussusception, and is considered a defining
feature in living things.

 Nonliving things do grow, but growth is always

addition of material to the outside, not the inside.
3. Growth:
 DO NON-LIVING THINGS GROW?

 Nonliving things do grow, but

growth is always addition of material
to the outside, not the inside.
All living things grow and develop. For example, a plant seed may
look like a lifeless pebble, but under the right conditions it will grow
and develop into a plant. Animals also grow and develop. Look at the
animals below. How will the tadpoles change as they grow and
develop into adult frogs?

https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/ck-12-biology-flexbook-2.0/section/1.4/
primary/lesson/characteristics-of-life-bio
4. Irritability:
All living things detect changes in their environment and respond to
them.
5. Reproduction:
Each kind of living organism has the ability to reproduce itself in
kind. Because all individual organism eventually die, reproduction is
necessary if a group of similar organism is to survive. There are two
basic kinds of reproduction: sexual and asexual.
6. Metabolism:
It is the sum of chemical reactions that take place
in living cells, providing energy for life processes
and the synthesis of cellular material.
a. Anabolism - the synthesis of complex molecules in living
organisms from simpler ones together with the storage of
energy
b. Catabolism - the sequences of enzyme-catalyzed reactions
by which relatively large molecules in living cells are
broken down, or degraded.