ScienceFreePrintable

Characteristics of Life

A free science worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Characteristics of Life

The school radio station is preparing a science segment about what makes something alive. Use the evidence in each task to classify organisms and explain your reasoning. Remember: an individual living thing may not show every life process at every moment.

The life-process checklist

Living things carry out seven key life processes, often remembered as MRS GREN: movement, releasing energy from food, responding to changes, getting bigger, producing offspring, removing waste and taking in nutrients.

1.Arjun is writing a radio script. A seedling bends towards a sunny window. Which life process does this response to light best demonstrate?

Sensitivity
Excretion
Reproduction
Respiration

2.Bodhi notices that a resting lizard still uses oxygen in cellular reactions to release energy from food. Which life process is she describing?

Respiration
Movement
Growth
Excretion

3.Match each example to the life process it demonstrates. Write the correct process beside each example.

A kangaroo urinates to remove dissolved waste.
A young kookaburra becomes larger as it develops.
A bacterium takes in nutrients from its surroundings.
A population of eucalypts produces seeds that can grow into new plants.

Nutrition
Excretion
Growth
Reproduction

Evidence from the field recording

Mason records observations beside a creek for the radio segment. Use the evidence below rather than relying on whether something appears to move.

A mussel: made of cells; takes in food; respires; grows; responds to changes in water; produces offspring; releases waste.

A flame: uses fuel and oxygen; grows while fuel is available; can spread; releases heat and gases.

A river stone: may be moved by flowing water; does not take in food, respire or produce offspring.

A sealed, dormant seed: made of cells; shows little activity now; can resume growth and respiration in suitable conditions.

4.Classify the mussel, flame, river stone and dormant seed as living, non-living or once-living/dormant where appropriate. Give one piece of evidence for each classification.

5.True or false: A car moves, uses fuel and releases waste gases, so it must be a living thing. Explain your decision using the idea of cells and life processes.

6.A listener says, “A seed cannot be alive because it is not moving or growing right now.” Write a reply that explains why this conclusion is unreliable and names one condition that may allow the seed to become active.

7.Choose the strongest evidence that a tiny sample contains living bacteria rather than just dust.

It has a colour that looks unusual.
It contains cells that grow and divide under suitable conditions.
It is too small to see without a microscope.
It was found near a creek.

8.A plant uses carbon dioxide and water to make sugars, then uses some of those sugars in a separate process to release energy. Explain why photosynthesis and this energy-releasing process are not the same process.

9.Write a two-sentence sign-off for the radio segment. Include the meaning of “organism” and one reason that movement alone is not enough to decide whether something is alive.