1. 1.1 Observing Living Things
Living things can survive in almost any kind of environment.
Living things have features that help them survive.
For example,hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 80 times per second, allowing them to hover and change direction rapidly.
All living things have needs that must be met if they are to survive.
See pages 8 - 9
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2. Characteristics of Living Things
There are 5 characteristics of living things:
Living things respond to their environment
Living things need energy
Living things grow
Living things reproduce
Living things must get rid of waste
See page 10
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3. Examining Very Small Living Things
The microscope is used by scientists to observe very small unicellular and multicellular living things.
Early microscopes were built in the late 1600’s.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek was one of the first people to build a microscope.
He could magnify up to 250x, and used it to observe microscopic living things.
See page 11
Water flea (Daphnia)
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4. Compound Light Microscope
The compound light microscope has two sets of lenses that magnify an image.
Each of the objective lenses has a different magnification power.
Low power = 4x objective
Med power = 10x objective
High power = 40x objective
Multiply the objective by the eyepiece for total magnification.
Example: High Power = 40 x 10 = 400 x
Do you know all the compound microscope parts?
See pages 12-13
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5. Resolving Power
The ability to distinguish between two dots or objects that are very close together is called resolving power.
The human eye has a certain resolving power. You can see the individual dots in diagrams A, B and C. The human eye does not have the resolving power to see the dots in diagram D.
Can you think of ways to increase resolving power?
See page 14
Take the Section 1.1 Quiz
(c) McGraw Hill Ryerson 2007