Characteristics+of+Life

toc =**What do we mean by “Biology is the study of life?”**=

Activity #1:
1. Construct lists of “things” that are alive and are not alive. 2. From this list, construct a hypothesis to answer the following question: “What are the characteristics of life?” You will be determining what the characteristics of living things are. 3. Put this on your blog.

Activity #2:
View the setup in the back of the room. Take a picture as a group and develop a series of questions as to what you see or observe.

We will answer only a few questions as a class. Determine what is happening in the flasks and how that corresponds to what you see is happening in the test tubes.

Class questions and answers:
What is in the flasks? A had yeast and water, B had molasses and water, C had yeast, molasses, and water. What is in the attached test tubes? Bromothymol blue which is an indicator for acid Why did the bromothymol blue turn yellow when exhaled into? The CO2 from your breath makes carbonic acid when reacts with the water. the acid changes the blue color to yellow.

Homework:
1. How does yeast make dough rise? 2. A recipe instructs you to add yeast to warm water not hot. Why? 3. Why does a recipe instruct the cook to let the yeast and water stand for 5 minutes or until bubbly? 4. What does the production of carbon dioxide gas indicate about yeast? 5. How can you be sure that the carbon dioxide gas was produced by the yeast? 6. Summarize what you have observed about yeast to classify them as living organisms.