Alive or Not

Determining whether or not something is living can be more difficult than it seems. Put your young scientists to work defining their own criteria to identify life, then work with three samples to see if they are alive or not. 

How diverse is the world we live in compared to the way things used to be? Young biologists explore diverse organisms and relate the structure of each organism to its ability to survive in our current environmental conditions....

The total world population is predicted to pass 8 billion by 2025, which is less than 10 years from now. The video focuses on human population growth and the impact it has had and is having on our planet and other populations. It...

Here's your chance to grow and develop your lesson plan for NGSS standard LS1B! The narrator of the video explains how to lay a solid foundation for learning within the standard, then gives examples and scenarios to help fine tune...

A lesson plan that introduces students to the concept of classifying objects as either living or non-living. From this lesson, students begin to think about the necessary characteristics of life.

This is an awesome instructional activity filled with tons of engaging learning activities. Over a period of weeks learners will make observations, collect plant and analyze plant data, read and review agricultural articles, design and...

Math and science come alive in this career-related instructional activity on sanitation. Along the way, learners explore bacterial growth rates using exponential notation and graphs. A link to a very brief, but vivid video shows just how...

Students explore the four characteristics of an old growth forest. In this forest lesson, students research old growth forests and their inhabitants. Students work in four separate groups and create a mural for their characteristic of an...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Videos, texts, activities, and assessments about the factors that characterize living things.

This slide show describes the seven common characteristics of all living things.