Characteristics of life wrap up and lab prep

Tuesday August 27^th

Which characteristic is shared by all prokaryotes and eukaryotes?

A. use of cellular respiration for energy release (Incorrect:  all organisms DO take in and release energy, but not all use cellular respiration)

B. use of organelles to control cell processes (Incorrect:  while all organisms do have cells, not all use organelles)

C. ability to store hereditary information Correct!!  ALL living organisms contain DNA which is the molecule that stores hereditary information.

D. ability to move in response to environmental stimuli Incorrect, while all organisms respond to environmental stimuli, NOT all organisms MOVE!!

Every car has a VIN number that identifies it, every living organism has a molecule called DNA that identifies it.  What is one difference between the FUNCTION of a VIN number and our molecule of heredity??

While a VIN and DNA both identify a car/ living organism, only DNA can actually provide the INSTRUCTIONS for MAKING an organism.  We could not build a car with just the VIN number, we CAN determine the characteristics and "build" a living organism by knowing it's DNA.
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Today I had you finish the Car analogy determining which characteristics of life a car has and those that it does not.  Finally, you began to set up your first lab!!!  Many of you swabbed different areas and transferred that to either agar plates or to nutrient broth to see if we could both growth and reproduction tomorrow in bacteria. You also had the opportunity to set up slides of your cheek cells to look at tomorrow.  We will work through a couple labs/demonstrations over the next two days!!