When you classify things, you are putting them into different groups based on characteristics they share.
Classifying objects as living or non-living
1. Collect two plastic bags from your teacher. In pairs, label one bag ‘Living’ and the other ‘Non-living’.
2. Under the supervision of your teacher, walk around the school grounds and collect three objects that you believe to be living and another three things that you believe to be non-living. If you cannot bring objects back to the laboratory with you, ask your teacher for permission to take photographs instead.
3. Back in the laboratory, classify the items as ‘living’ or ‘non-living’. Explain your decisions to your classmates using the list of characteristics of living things. Remember that a living organism demonstrates all seven characteristcs of life. Record the findings of the class.
4. Following a class discussion, make a list of at least five characteristics that all living things have in common. (What about fire – is it alive?)
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Fig. 1.1.2 Classifying objects as living or non-living
