Grade 7 Life Science Unit 1 Study Guide Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering characteristics of life, organization, cell types, nutrition, necessities, scientific CER, and experimental design from Grade 7 Life Science Unit 1.

Growth and Development

A characteristic of life where an organism matures and changes over time, such as a seedling becoming a mature tree.

Reproduction

A characteristic of life where an organism produces offspring, such as a sunflower producing seeds or a bird producing offspring.

Obtain and Use Energy

A characteristic of life where organisms break down food or nutrients to fuel life processes, such as a bird using energy from food to fly or yeast producing gas.

Respond to Stimuli

A characteristic of life where an organism reacts to external or internal changes in its environment, such as a root growing toward moisture or plant leaves turning toward a lamp.

Maintain Homeostasis

The characteristic of life involving the maintenance of stable internal conditions, such as sweating to keep body temperature stable.

Stimulus

A change in an organism's environment or surroundings that triggers a reaction.

Response

An action, behavior, or change in an organism that occurs as a result of a stimulus.

Asexual Reproduction

A type of reproduction involving a single parent where offspring are produced without the fusion of sex cells, such as a bacterium dividing into two cells or a plant growing from a parent plant's stem.

Sexual Reproduction

A type of reproduction where sex cells from two sources combine to form offspring.

Levels of Organization

The hierarchy of structural organization in living things: cell $\rightarrow$ tissue $\rightarrow$ organ $\rightarrow$ organ system $\rightarrow$ organism.

Tissue

A group of similar cells working together to perform a specific function, such as a group of similar muscle cells contracting.

Division of Labor

The allocation of specific tasks and functions among specialized cells in a multicellular organism.

Unicellular

An organism made up of only one cell, such as a bacterium, amoeba, or yeast.

Multicellular

An organism composed of many cells working together, such as an oak tree or a human.

Gas Exchange

A life necessity process defined as taking in and releasing gases.

Producer (Autotroph)

An organism that makes its own food, such as a green plant using water and minerals from its surroundings.

Consumer (Heterotroph)

An organism that must consume or obtain its food from other organisms or outside sources.

Claim (CER)

A statement or conclusion that answers a scientific question in the CER explanation framework.

Evidence (CER)

Specific facts, observations, or data from a scenario or experiment that support a scientific claim.

Reasoning (CER)

An explanation that connects evidence to a claim using underlying scientific principles or life processes.

Independent Variable

The factor in an experiment that is deliberately changed by the investigator, such as the presence of sugar in the yeast investigation.

Dependent Variable

The factor observed or measured in an experiment to evaluate the effect of the independent variable, such as gas production measured by balloon inflation.

Control Group

The comparison group in an experiment that does not receive the experimental change, such as yeast and warm water without added sugar.

Carbon Dioxide Production

An indirect indicator of metabolic life processes, such as gas production inflating a balloon in a yeast and sugar mixture.