Basic Science JSS 1 First term

Week 3

Topic: Living and Non-living Things (III)

Contents:

• Differences between Plants and Animals
• Examples and Importance of Living Things

Introduction

Both plants and animals are living things because both have the same qualities of living things. However, there are important differences between plants and animals.

Differences in Structure between Plants and Animals

PLANTS	ANIMALS
Have roots	Have no roots
Have stems	Have no stems
Have leaves	Have no leaves
Have flowers, fruits, and seeds	Have no flowers, fruits, and seeds
Have chlorophyll (green colouring in plants)	Have no chlorophyll
Have no definite shape	Have a definite shape
Are made up of many parts i.e leaves, branches, roots	Do not have many parts

Differences between Plant and Animal Cell

PLANT CELL	ANIMAL CELL
Presence of cellulose cell wall	Cell wall absent
Cell vacuoles present	Cell vacuoles normally absent
Chloroplasts present	Chloroplasts absent
Cytoplasm does not fill the cell	Cytoplasm fills the cell
Cell sap present	Cell sap absent

Differences in Plant and Animal Functions

	PLANT	ANIMAL
Movement	Do not move from place to place but carry out bending movements	Move from place to place
Breathing	Have no complex organs for breathing	Breathe through complex organs such as lungs and gills
Feeding	Make their own food	Feed on plants and other animals, cannot make their own food
Excretion	Have no complex organs for excretion	Have complex organs for excretion, e.g. kidneys and lungs
Growth	Grow in length only at the tip of stems and roots	Grow in length in all parts of the body
Sensitivity	Respond slowly to changes in the environment except for sensitive plants	Respond quickly to the changes in the environment
Reproduction	There is no courtship in reproduction	There is usually courtship in reproduction

Examples of Living Things – Plants

HERBS	FLOWERS	TREES
Crotalaria	Hibiscus	Mango
Carpet grass	Ice plant	Orange
Bahama grass	Ixora	Guava
	Yellow bush	Pawpaw
	Pride of Barbados	Neem
		Cassia

Examples of Living Things – Animals

PETS	FARM ANIMALS	WILD ANIMALS
Cat	Goat	Rat
Dog	Sheep	Squirrel
	Cow	Weaver bird
	Chicken	Elephant
	Rabbit	Snake
		Tse-tse fly

Assessment

1. A living thing (a) Moves (b) Grows (c) Respires (d) Reproduces (e) Does all of 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. Both plants and animals are living things because of  __________
5. Mention 3 differences between plants and animals

Answer

1. E
2. E
3. D
4. both have the same qualities of living things.
5. 3 differences between plants and animals

Movement	PLANTS Do not move from place to place but carry out bending movements	ANIMALS Move from place to place
Breathing	Have no complex organs for breathing	Breathe through complex organs such as lungs and gills
Feeding	Make their own food	Feed on plants and other animals, cannot make their own food