What are the life processes in animals & plants?

Contributed by:

kevin Tue, Jan 18, 2022 09:05 PM UTC

Life processes are the series of actions that are essential to determine if an animal is alive.

1. CHAPTER 1 –LIVING THINGS AND THEIR LIFE PROCESSES
What are the Life Processes in Humans and Animals?
What are the Life Processes in Plants?
How can we tell Living Things from Non-living Things?
What are the life processes in animals & plants?
1. Define Life Processes.
Life processes are the series of actions that are essential to determine if an animal is alive.
2. What are the Life Processes?
There are seven essential processes in common: movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth,
reproduction, excretion and nutrition or MRS GREN.
3. Does all living things exhibit MRS GREN?
Yes, anything that is alive (animals, plants, humans) MUST demonstrate all seven of these
processes!!
For e.g. plants can tell in which direction the Sun is in, and know the difference between up and
down! They are capable of movement.
4. All about
M - Movement  All living things move, even
plants
R - Respiration Getting energy from food
S - Sensitivity  Detecting changes in the
surroundings
G - Growth  All living things grow
R - Reproduction  Making more living things of
the same type
E - Excretion  Getting rid of waste
N - Nutrition  Taking in and using food
http://othcy9science.wikispaces.com/MRS+C+GREN
5. Is there any other characteristics that living organism satisfy?
Some scientists have named the 8 th characteristics which is:-
C - Cells  All living things have cells.

2. i. Animals do this to look for food and shelter, and to escape from danger. They can move because
their bodies are supported by:
Type Features Examples
Endoskeleton  Bones/Cartilage are
inside
 Grows as animals
grow
Exoskeleton  Hard outer shells
 Does not grow
 Shed and replaced
Hydrostatic  No bones
 Internal fluids held
within body
Plants move towards sunlight, roots grow into the soil. They move slower than animals.

3. Living things do this so that they will not become extinct.
i. Animals have babies from:
 giving birth
 laying eggs
 asexual reproduction (e.g. Hydra jelly fish sprout babies like buds growing from parent’s
body).
Baby animals can resemble mini adults or some will undergo
partial/complete metamorphosis.
ii. Plants grow from :
 Seeds  Spores (ferns & mosses)
 Asexual  Plant grafting & budding.
o tubers (potatoes)
o rhizomes (onions,
ginger);
o runners (strawberries)

4. Living things notice and react/respond to changes around them.
i. Animals use their five senses:
 Sight (eyes)
 Hearing (ears)
 Smell (nose)
 Touch (skin, feelers)
 Taste (tongue)
ii. Plants are also sensitive to their surroundings:
 Gear towards sunlight and water
 Respond to touch (e.g. the V enus Flytrap & Mimosa).

5. A living thing gets bigger, taller and heavier over time.
i. Animals grow at a fairly steady pace until they reach adulthood. Every day as they get older their
bodies are changing. Their skeleton grows with them, each bone getting bigger over time.
Arthropods - insects, spiders, crabs and other animals with external skeletons – grow by
shedding their skeleton and grow a new one!
ii. Plants – most grow from seeds (germination)
i. The process by which nutrients taken in are converted to energy. Respiration is a chemical
reaction and occurs in every cell in living things.
(Food) (Lungs/Gills) (for bodily function/movement/growth)
Glucose + Oxygen ENERGY
(Produces by-products e.g. CO2, water)
ii. Plants respire all the time because their cells need energy to stay alive, but plants can only
photosynthesize when they are in the light.
* respiration is the opposite of photosynthesis.
Time of day Photosynthesis Respiration
Day Active Active
Night None Active

6. The process by which waste materials produced by the body are removed.
i. In animals, excretion gets rid of carbon dioxide, water and harmful substances (the by-products
of respiration) from your body.
Filter out nasties to produce Sheds excess salt through
Excrete carbon dioxide as you urine, removing nitrogen waste sweat.
breathe out. from your body.
Types of Human Excretion
ii. Plants break down waste products at a much slower pace than animals. During:
 Respiration (night) ------- Carbon dioxide + Water (*transpiration)
(stomata and root cell walls) (tips of the leaves)
 Photosynthesis (day) --------- Oxygen (stomata, root cell walls and other routes)
Other plant wastes include resins, saps, latex and tannins (released into the soil surrounding the
plant; leaves and flowers fall off of a plant)
Types of Plant Excretion

7. i. Animals get nutrients to survive:
 From food and water
 By hunting
Animals can be categorized into the type food they eat:
Carnivores Herbivores Omnivores
Eat only meat Eat only plant sources Eat both meat and plants
ii. Plants ‘make’ own food get nutrients by:
 absorbing them from the soil
 forming sugars through photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis = light energy + carbon dioxide and water sugar.
(+ pigment Chlorophyll) (sun) convert into
Photosynthesis

8. How can we tell living things from non-living things?
6. How do we differentiate living and non-living things?
By investigating whether it undergoes ALL life processes. Living things are made up of cells and
regulate internal conditions e.g. body temperature (homeostasis)
Non-
LivingThings living
Things
CONCLUSION:
Living Things may refer to:
 Life that have self-sustaining processes (biology)
 Organisms with living systems (such as animals, plants, fungi, or micro-organisms)

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