LIVING AND NON-LIVING THINGS (II)

Basic Science JSS 1 First Term

Week 2

Topic: Living and non-living things (II)

Contents

  • Characteristics of living and non-living things
  • Examples, characteristics and importance of plants and animals

Introduction

Both living and non-living things are important to human beings. Both plant and animals are living things because both have the same qualities of living things. on the other hand, we obtain food from living things but we also depend for successful living on non-living things. we need air to breathe, we need water to drink, cook, wash our bodies clothes and so on; without iron and steel, we would not have our knife and refrigerators.

Characteristics of living and non-living things

The characteristics of living things are summarized below. Living things:

  1. Move
  2. Feed
  3. Respire
  4. Excrete waste substances
  5. Grow
  6. Reproduce
  7. Respond to their environment

Examples of Plant and Animals

Examples of Plants are:

— Carpet grass

— Bahama grass

— Hibiscus flower

— Ixora

— Mango

— Orange

— Pawpaw

Examples of Animal

— Cat

— Dog

— Sheep

— Goat

— Squirrel

— Elephant

— Snake

Importance of Plants 

Plants and animals are important to human beings in many ways. These uses are briefly described below:

  1. Plants provide human beings with food such as vegetables, fruits, tubers and so on. Examples include yam, tubers, cassava, rice, spinach, tomatoes etc.
  2. Plants provide human beings with firewood
  3. Plants provide human beings with timber
  4. Plants produce materials which are useful to human beings such as fibers and latex (e.g. rubber)
  5. Some medicine that cures human diseases are obtained from plants
  6. Plants beautify the human environment
  7.  Roots of plant hold soil particles together and reduce soil erosion
  8.  Leaves of plants break the force of rain drops and thereby reduce soil erosion
  9. Transpiration helps the water cycle and promotes rainfall which helps human beings to grow crops
  10. Plants are eaten by our domestic animals
  11. Plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and give out oxygen, thus helping to restore the proportion of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Importance of animals

  1. Animals are eaten by human beings
  2. Some animals e.g. donkey and camels are used by human beings as beasts of burden
  3. Some animals are used for transporting human beings e.g. horses and camels
  4. The dog is used to watch over property
  5. Animals are sold to earn money e.g. goat, sheep, pigs, poultry.

Exercises

1. A living thing _____

a. moves

b. grows

c. respires

d. reproduces

e. does all the above

2. A plant differs from an animal because a plant _____

a. respires

b. grows

c. moves

d. reproduces

e. makes its food

3. Which of the following is not normally present in animal cells?

a. living matter

b. nucleus

c. cytoplasm

d. chlorophyll

e. cell membrane

4. Name four examples of plant and animals

5. Human beings are living things; true or false?

a. True

b. False

Answers

  1. a
  2. e
  3. a
  4. plants – herb, cowpea, maize, rose & animals – goat, snail, cow, lion
  5. True