How can we Tell it's Alive?

A group of students takes an object they found on the ground and decide to examine it under the local college's electron microscope and discover the following image:
NGSS Phenomena: Tiny shapes, many looking like spikey spheres or hot dog buns, with different textures.
Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility, Dartmouth College

1. For this situation, what is the phenomena under investigation?

2. An electron microscope is able to magnify objects up to 10,000,000x and a light microscope that you would have in your classroom is able to magnify most objects under 1000x.

What other information would be helpful to make a determination on whether or not these are cells?

3. Explain what information you need in order to answer this question:

Is this a living thing?

4. One of your classmates looks at the image and makes the following statement:

"This object is a living thing, since we can clearly see that there are many different types of cells in the image. Cells are shaped like a ball and it’s easy to see that all the ball shaped things in the image are cells and must be alive."

Determine if your classmate is correct, and correct any inaccuracies in their statement.

5. Another classmates looks at the image and makes the following statement:

“This object is not alive, because the cells are unorganized. Living things are made of more than one cell and those cells are organized into groups that work together called tissue. If this was a picture of something that’s alive, it would be more organized and similar cells would all be together.”

Determine if your classmate is correct, and correct any inaccuracies in their statement.

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This free response question aligns to the following standards

  • LS1.A: Structure and Function

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This free response question aligns to the following standards

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  • LS1.A: Structure and Function

This free response question aligns to the following standards

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  • MS-LS1-1

  • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

This free response question aligns to the following standards

  • LS1.A: Structure and Function

  • MS-LS1-1

  • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

  • Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

This free response question aligns to the following standards

  • LS1.A: Structure and Function

  • MS-LS1-1

  • Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

  • Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

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