Bell Work

1. Bell Work Have you ever wondered how homing pigeons find their way home? Do you know why the dinosaurs went extinct? Write five questions about the natural world that you hope to have answered in this class. Record your questions on the left side of your IAN.

2. Unit 1 The World of Life Science Section 1 Asking About Life

3. Imagine . . . You are walking through a field withsome classmates. Suddenly you noticethat there are frogs hopping around allover the place! You and your classmatesstart catching the frogs with a net. Asyou lift the first frog from the net, younotice something. Its legs seem to bebroken. You look at your friend’s frog.It seems to be injured, too. You look at another. A frog with no eyes? Wait a minute! These frogs aren’t injured. They’re deformed! What are these, aliens from outer space?

4. Objectives: I can: • Explain the importance of asking questions in life science. • State examples of life scientists at work. • List three ways life science is beneficial to living things.

5. Imagine that it’s summer. You are lying in the grass at the park, casually looking around. Three dogs are playing on your left. A few bumblebees are visiting nearby flowers. And an ant is carrying a crumb away from your sandwich. Suddenly, a question pops into your head: How do ants find food? Then, you think of another question: Why do the bees visit the yellow flowers but not the red ones? Congratulations! You have just taken the first steps toward becoming a life scientist.

6. How did you do it? You observed the living world around you. You were curious, and you asked questions about your observations. Those steps are what science is all about. Life science is the study of living things.

7. STOP! • Reflection check: • What is life science? Record your answer in a complete sentence on the left hand side (output) of your IAN.

8. The world around you is full of an amazing diversity of life. Single-celled algae float unseen in ponds. Giant redwood trees seem to touch the sky. And 40-ton whales swim through the oceans. For every living thing, or organism, that has ever lived, you could ask many questions. Those questions could include (1) How does the organism get its food? (2) Where does it live? and (3) Why does it behave in a particular way?

9. Questions are easy to think of. Take a look around your room, your home, and your neighborhood. What questions about life science come to mind? The student in this picture has questions about some very familiar organisms. Do you know the answer to any of his questions?

10. STOP! • Answer the following questions in your IAN: • What questions about life science come to mind? • If you know the answer to any of the boy’s questions, record the answers in your IAN. If you don’t know the answers, pick one question and write a possible answer using what you know about the subject. • Why do leaves change color in the fall? • How do birds know where to go when they migrate? • Why did the dinosaurs die out?

11. The questions you can ask about your neighborhood are just a sample of all the questions you could ask about the world. The world is made up of many different places to live, such as deserts, forests, coral reefs, and tide pools. Just about anywhere you go, you will find some kind of living organism. If you observe these organisms, you can easily think of questions to ask about them. Close your eyes for a moment, and imagine a life scientist. What do you see? Do you see someone in a laboratory and peering into a microscope? On the left hand side of your IAN, draw a picture of what you imagine a life scientist to look like.

12. Which of these people do you think are life scientists? Irene Duhart Long asks, “How does the human body respond to space travel?” Irene Pepperberg asks, “Are parrots smart enough to learn human language?” GeeratVermeij asks, “How have shells changed over time?”

13. If you guessed that all of those people are life scientists, then you are right. Anyone can investigate the world around us. Women and men from any cultural or ethnic background can become life scientists. Making investigations in a laboratory is an important part of life science, but life science can be studied in many other places, too. Life scientists carry out investigations on farms, in forests, on the ocean floor-even in space. They work for businesses, hospitals, government agencies, and universities. Many are also teachers.

14. What a life scientist studies is determined by one thing-his or her curiosity. Life scientists specialize in many different areas of life science. They may study how organisms function and behave. Or they may study how organisms interact with each other and their environment. Some life scientists explore how organisms reproduce and pass traits from one generation to the next. Some life scientists investigate ancient origins of organisms and the ways in which organisms have changed over time.

15. What is the point of asking all these questions? Life scientists might find some interesting answers, but do any of the answers really matter? Will the answers affect your life? Absolutely! As you study life science, you will see how the investigations of life science affect you and all the living things around you.

16. Polio is a disease that causes paralysis by affecting the brain and nerves. Do you know anyone who has had polio? Probably not. The polio virus has been eliminated from most of the world. But at one time, it was much more common. In 1952, before life scientists discovered ways to prevent the spread of the polio virus, it infected 58,000 Americans. Today, life scientists continue to search for ways to fight diseases. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease that kills millions of people every year. Life scientists have discovered how the virus that causes AIDS is carried from one person to another. Scientists have also learned about how the virus affects the body. By learning more about the virus, scientists may find a cure for this deadly disease.

17. Stop! Do you have an illness, or have a family member with one? Explain what the illness is, what you know about it, and whether it can be passed on to others. Also, if you know, tell me about the treatment of the disease. List any questions you have about the illness. If you or a family member doesn’t have an illness that you are aware of, please use the illness “cancer” and answer the questions using that illness.

18. Some diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, are inherited. They are passed from parents to children. Most of the information that controls an organism’s cells is inherited as coded information. Changes in small parts of this information may cause the organism to be born with or to develop certain diseases. Scientists worldwide are studying the way humans inherit this code that controls their cells. By learning about this code, scientists hope to find ways to cure or prevent inherited diseases.

19. Summary: • Science is a process of gathering knowledge about the natural world. Science includes making observations and asking questions about those observations. Life science is the study of living things. • A variety of people may become life scientists for a variety of reasons. • Life science can help solve problems such as disease or pollution, and it can be applied to help living things survive.