Session 6 The Living Organisms-Characteristics and Habitats
Session 6 The Living Organisms-Characteristics and Habitats
Session 6 The Living Organisms-Characteristics and Habitats
Session 6
The Living Organisms- Characteristics and Habitats
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NSTSE & NSO 2022 – Class 6 NOT TO BE REDISTRIBUTED – FOR INTERNAL CIRCULATION ONLY
Many things around us are alive, others are not alive but were once alive and
some other things were never alive.
Things such as furniture, cricket bats, hockey sticks and corks are made up of
wood.
You can call them non-living things, though the trees from which the wood was
taken to make these things were once living.
(1) All living and non-living things are made up of matter. Matter occupies space
and has mass. Thus living and non-living things have mass and they occupy
space.
(ii) Another common feature between living and non-living things is that they are
made up of structural units. A non-living thing like a chalk can be broken into
smaller and smaller particles until you get smallest piece of chalk. A molecule is
the smallest unit of matter. So, a molecule is the structural unit of chalk. Thus,
molecules are the structural units of non-living things. The structural functional
unit of a living organism is the cell. Cell vary in size and shape. There are
different kinds of cells present in the body of a living thing. Cells can be seen
under a microscope.
Cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life. The body of organisms is
made up of cells.
The organisms which are made up of only one cell are called unicellular and the
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All living organisms need food. Food gives them energy to grow, to move and to
perform other life processes that go on inside their bodies.
Plants make their own food through the process of photosynthesis, hence are
called autotrophs.
Animals and humans depend on plants and other animals for their food hence,
called heterotrophs
In non - living things growth occurs due to addition of material from outside.
Breathing is a process by which we take in air rich in oxygen and we give out air
rich in carbon dioxide. When we inhale, the air moves from outside to the inside
of the body. When we breathe out, the air moves from inside of our body to
outside.
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The air we breathe in, passes into our lungs. Here, the oxygen in the air is
absorbed into the blood used by the body. Carbon dioxide is produced in our body
as waste. When we breathe out, this carbon dioxide is expelled out of our body,
along with the unused air.
Humans have lungs for respiration. Different animals have different mechanisms
and organs for the exchange of gases. Birds and most mammals like cows, dogs,
etc., have lungs for respiration. Earthworms and leeches breathe through their
skin, insects, (e.g., cockroaches) breathe through holes present on the sides of
their bodies and fish have gills for using oxygen dissolved in water.
In plants, exchange of gases mainly takes place through tiny pores present on the
surface of their leaves. These tiny pores are called stomata. During respiration,
leaves take in oxygen through stomata and release carbon dioxide.
In the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll, plants prepare their food by the
process of photosynthesis using CO2 of air and water from soil. During this
process, plants take in CO2 and release O2 through stomata.
Respiration in plants takes place day and night. During the day, the amount of
oxygen given out by them through photosynthesis is more than the amount of
oxygen used up in respiration. As a result, plants provide oxygen, which sustains
life on Earth.
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Living things respond to stimuli
Wild animals, eg, dog, cat, etc., suddenly become active on seeing the food
placed in front of them.
Cockroaches begin to move to their hiding places if the light in the kitchen is
switched on at night.
Plants also respond to stimuli. Flowers of some plants bloom only at night. In
some plants, flowers close after sunset. In some plants like Mimosa commonly
known as 'touch-me-not’, leaves close or fold when someone touches them.
The response of a plant towards sunlight (or any source of light) is referred to as
phototropism. Stem of plants have a tendency to grow towards the light
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(Positively phototropic) whereas the roots of plants have a tendency to grow away
from the light (Negatively phototropic).
There are several processes going on inside our body, such as digestion,
respiration, etc. During these processes some waste products are produced.
These wastes are removed from our body in the form of urine, sweat and exhaled
air (when we breathe out).
This process of getting rid of waste substances by the living organisms is referred
to as excretion. Excretion is a common characteristic of all living organisms.
Plants also excrete, however the mechanisms of excretion in plants are a little
different. Some harmful or poisonous materials get produced in plants as wastes.
Some plants find it possible to store the waste products within their parts in a way
that they do not harm them. Some plants remove waste products as secretions.
Reproduction is the process by which living organisms produce their own kind.
Reproduction takes place in different ways in different organisms. Many animals
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lay eggs, which upon hatching give rise to young ones, eg, birds, crocodiles,
insects, frogs, etc.
The other animals give birth to young ones, e.g., mammals such as cow, buffalo,
lion, horse, cat, tiger, etc. Humans also give birth to young ones
Many plants also reproduce through parts other than seeds eg, a piece of potato
with a bud grows into a new plant when sown in soil.
New plantlets arise from buds present on the leaves of Bryophyllum plant, etc.
All living organisms show movement. The change in the position of any body
part is called movement whereas the movement of a whole organism from one
place to another is called locomotion.
Plants do not move from one place to another. However, plants show certain
movements in response to stimuli, e.g., when we touch the leaves of Mimosa
plant (Touch- me-not) the leaves droop down; sunflower turns towards the Sun,
opening and closing of flowers in response to light, etc.
Important Points
Whale and dolphin are mammals and use their lungs to respire. However, they
have to come to the surface of water of the ocean to breathe. Sometimes they lie
right below the surface of water, with just a part of their backs sticking out.
Whales do not have noses instead they have a hole called a blowhole on top of
their heads. Sometimes when a whale breathes air out of its blowhole, it shows up
as a spray or mist-called a spout that can be seen from several miles away,
Blowholes are surrounded by muscles that keep the hole closed when the whale
or dolphin is under water and open it when the animal is at the surface and needs
to breathe.
In fact, some of the animals have two blowholes next to each other and others
have only one. Pilot whales and dolphins have one blowhole, humpbacks whales,
mink whales and right whales have two.
Most flowers open only once, as they grow from a bud to a full-blown blossom,
Some open during the day and close at night, some at varying times of the day. In
harsh environments, this adaptation can help flowers conserve energy and
improve the health of the plant as a whole.
Plants that tuck themselves in for bedtime exhibit a natural behavior known as
nyctinasty. In cool air and darkness, the bottom-most petals of certain flowers
grow at a faster rate than the upper-most petals, forcing the flowers to shut.
All organisms, whether small or large start their life as a single cell, called zygote.