Name_______________________________________

 1.           The ‘ribbon of life’ refers to small particles making up larger and larger structures:  atoms combine to form molecules, molecules fit together to make organelles, …etc…).  Some people compare the ribbon of life to the way letters of the alphabet are the smallest ‘particles’ in a library.  Write out a comparison starting with letters on the first level like atoms and the entire library representing a multi-cellular organism.  Fill in the other six levels of the ribbon of life between atoms and organisms and the larger and larger levels between letters and the library.

Atoms        ..          ..                  ..               ..                    ..               ..            Organisms

Letters      ..           ..                    ..            ..                      ..               ..           the library

2.  Katrina and Eric disagreed when Eric said that amoebas are not organisms because they are only made of one cell.  Katrina said amoebas are organisms, but an elodea plant is not, because it doesn’t move by itself like a battery-powered plastic fish, which is an organism.  Can you straighten them out?  Which of the three (amoeba, elodea and toy fish) are organisms?  Which are not?  Explain why. 

3.  Describe photosynthesis in a way that a second grader might understand it.

4.  Identify the three main parts of the seed and describe the function of each part.