As part of our investigation on the Great Barrier Reef for Science, students needed to classify objects into the following categories:
- Living
- Non-Living
- Once Living
We did some brainstorming on criteria we could use to determine which category different objects and items belong.
We came up with a pretty good set of criteria.
- It should be able to breathe (take in oxygen)
- It should take in food or nutrients
- It should be able to respond to things around it (e.g. heat or light)
- It should be able to move by itself
- It should be able to recreate itself or reproduce
- It should be able to grow or change
- It should give off waste
We discussed how some things that appear alive can meet some of this criteria, but not all. Therefore they are non-living. Fire, for example, moves, grows and seems to ‘eat’ things when it burns them, but fire does not reproduce.
