Lessons Direct

In this activity, learners will create their own rules to establish what “life” is by sorting everyday objects into categories.

You are a living person. The air in your lungs is not alive. The paper in your notebook used to be alive when it was a plant. When we study “life science” and biology, we don’t study notebooks and wooden pencils. What does it mean to be alive?

Materials:
1. Index cards (physical or virtual) that educator has written list of things on
2. Idea board (whiteboard) or notebook to display rules
3. Second set of index cards (physical or virtual) that educator has written second list of things on

Activity:

1. A list of things is given below and in your index cards. Sort the objects into three categories:
   Alive
   Used to be Alive
   Not Alive
2. Review your piles and rearrange the items as needed.
3. In your idea board or notebook, write some rules you used to determine if something is alive or not
4. Sort the second set of index cards according to your rules. You may adjust your rules as you go.

List 1:

1. Strawberry plant
2. Your best friend
3. Dog
4. Wooden pencil
5. Aluminum can
6. Plastic water bottle
7. The sun
8. Moss
9. Ocean water
10. Your smartphone
11. A snail fossil
12. Your tooth
13. Flamingo
14. Paper plane
15. Robot Dog
16. An AI chatbot
17. Stuffed bear
18. Plankton, an organism that lives in the ocean
19. Your gut bacteria
20. Bubble gum
21. Glass in a window pane
22. Grass
23. Tree trunk
24. Mushroom
25. Ant
26. Tuna fish
27. Cloud
28. Metal spoon
29. Fire
30. The nitrogen in the air
31. Gemstone
32. Truck
33. Propane gas
34. Cotton shirt
35. Brown autumn leaf
36. Bread
37. Chicken egg from the store
38. Spore from a fern plant
39. Cheese
40. Pumpkin seed
    
    List 2:
41. Apple
42. Cat
43. Mechanical pencil
44. Algae
45. The moon
46. Tap water
47. Sea shell
48. Bread yeast
49. Bone
50. Leather shoes
51. Fallen tree branch
52. Paper textbook
53. Cardboard box
54. Car engine
55. Computer
56. Apple tree
57. E. coli bacterium
58. An echo
59. Rubber plant
60. Ocean coral
    
    

Reflective Questions:

1. What rules did you come up with?
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Did you place mechanical pencil and wooden pencil in the same category? Why or why not?
   
   
3. Did you place apple and strawberry plant in the same category? Why or why not?
   
   

Future Directions:

You will use this activity to make rules about living things. This will be the foundation for your life science studies. Soon you will learn about cells, genetics, and all the important things that keep living things alive. You may also have to decide whether or not you think viruses are alive or not using your rules.