Ch 25: MTTC Elementary Education: Life Sciences
About This Chapter
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.

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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Other Chapters
Other chapters within the MTTC Elementary Education (103): Practice & Study Guide course
- MTTC Elementary Education: Language Acquisition & Literacy
- MTTC Elementary Education: Foundations of Literacy
- MTTC Elementary Education: Phonics & Fluency
- MTTC Elementary Education: Vocabulary & Reading Comprehension
- MTTC Elementary Education: Narrative & Expository Texts
- MTTC Elementary Education: The Writing Process
- MTTC Elementary Education: Types of Communication
- MTTC Elementary Education: Michigan History
- MTTC Elementary Education: Geography
- MTTC Elementary Education: Civics & Government
- MTTC Elementary Education: Economics
- MTTC Elementary Education: Social Studies
- MTTC Elementary Education: Visual Arts
- MTTC Elementary Education: Performing Arts
- MTTC Elementary Education: Art & Culture
- MTTC Elementary Education: Mathematical Reasoning & Development
- MTTC Elementary Education: Number Systems
- MTTC Elementary Education: Whole Number Operations
- MTTC Elementary Education: Ratios, Percents & Proportions
- MTTC Elementary Education: Units of Measurement
- MTTC Elementary Education: Geometry Concepts
- MTTC Elementary Education: Algebra Concepts
- MTTC Elementary Education: Data Analysis & Probability
- MTTC Elementary Education: Scientific Knowledge
- MTTC Elementary Education: Earth & Space Science
- MTTC Elementary Education: Physical Science
- MTTC Elementary Education: Health Education
- MTTC Elementary Education: Physical Education
- MTTC Elementary Education Flashcards