MTTC Elementary Education: Life Sciences - Videos & Lessons

About This Chapter

Let us help you prepare for the MTTC Elementary Education assessment with this in-depth look at life sciences. Review fun video lessons and take short quizzes to boost your knowledge of taxonomy, living organisms, cellular respiration and more.

MTTC Elementary Education: Life Sciences - Chapter Summary

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to brush up on your knowledge of life sciences with help from expert instructors. They have created comprehensive life science lessons that ensure you're able to answer questions on the MTTC Elementary Education assessment asking you to:

Define life sciences, and identify the defining characteristics of living organisms
Describe taxonomy and how to make classifications and name living things
Explain the basic needs of living organisms and the requirement of living systems for free energy and matter
Discuss the transformation of energy in living organisms
Provide information about cellular respiration and energy transfer in cells
Share the meaning of chlorophyll, and discuss the process of absorbing light energy for photosynthesis
Analyze organelles and internal components of a cell

Benefit from a variety of resources designed to simplify your preparations for the exam. Feel free to review the lessons as videos or full transcripts as you gain greater insight into life sciences. Short quizzes and a chapter exam are also available to test your comprehension of the lessons. If you need to revisit specific details in the videos and don't have time to rewatch them in full, take advantage of timelines that let you identify and skip to key topics.

12 Lessons in Chapter 25: MTTC Elementary Education: Life Sciences

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1. What Are Life Sciences?

The life sciences study all types of living things. Branches of the life science study things from the tiniest microorganisms to the largest animals. Learn about the many branches of the life sciences and what it's like to work in these fields.

2. The Defining Characteristics of Living Organisms

A house is not a living thing, but the people, animals, and plants living inside it are. So how do we define 'life'? Learn about seven characteristics that all living organisms have in common, no matter how different they may look on the outside.

3. Taxonomy: Classification and Naming of Living Things

The name you give to a living thing may be completely different than the name someone else uses. In science, we use a common naming system for all living things to avoid confusion. This lesson will explore the basics of our classification system.

4. Energy and Life: The Transformation of Energy in Living Organisms

While the sun is an excellent source of energy, not all forms of life can utilize the sun's energy directly. This lesson describes how plants transform the sun's energy into potential energy stored in sugar, how living organisms utilize energy in sugar to perform work, and how the relationship between photosynthesis and cellular respiration is necessary for life.

5. What is a Life Cycle? - Definition, Stages & Examples

In this lesson, you'll learn the definition of 'life cycle' and find out about the three basic stages of a life cycle. You'll also explore examples of different life cycles.

6. Fundamentals of Genetics: Reproduction & Heredity

Your genes are unique and determine everything about you. In this lesson, we will learn what genes are, how they are inherited from your parents, and how to determine which traits will actually be expressed if you inherit a certain combination of genes.

7. What Is Genetic Variation? - Sources, Definition & Types

Natural selection is the process that drives evolution, but what drives natural selection? Genetic variation increases the genetic diversity in and among populations, allowing for new traits to become more or less prominent in the gene pool.

8. Natural Selection & Adaptation: Definition, Theory & Examples

How does natural selection help shape the amazing types of animals we witness around us? In this lesson, we'll explore adaptations and what they can tell us about a species' past evolution.

9. Theories of Evolution: Lamarck vs. Darwin

We'll look at the interplay between population genetics and environment. Are traits individually acquired or do entire populations evolve? The flying hamsters and a few other notable experiments will provide the answers.

10. Biotic Factor: Definition & Examples

This lesson focuses on the meaning of the term 'biotic factor.' It also introduces other terminology such as the words 'abiotic' and 'ecosystem'. There are real-world examples embedded in the lesson, and a brief quiz follows.

11. Abiotic Factors of an Ecosystem: Definition & Examples

When it comes to ecosystems, a mountain, a river, and a cloud have more in common than you might think. Abiotic factors have specific and important roles in nature because they help shape and define ecosystems.

12. Interactions in Ecosystems: Types & Examples

In this lesson we'll be learning about different types of interactions in ecosystems. We'll look at different types of symbiosis as well as predator prey relationships and examples of each.

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