Chapter One Vocabulary (From Bacteria to Plants)
Section 1
Organism: a living thing (pg. 16)
Cell: the basic unit of structure and function in an organism (pg. 17)
Unicellular: a type of organism that is made up of a single cell (pg. 17)
Multicellular: a type of organism that is made up of many cells (pg. 17)
Development: the process of change that occurs during an organism ‘s life to
produce a more complex organism (pg. 18)
Stimulus Response: an action or change in behavior that occurs as a result of a
change in an organism’s surroundings that causes the organism to react (pg. 18)
Reproduce: the production of offspring that are similar to the parents (pg. 19)
Spontaneous Generation: the mistaken idea that living things arise from nonliving
sources (pg. 19)
Controlled Experiment: an experiment in which all factors are identical except
one (pg. 19)
Manipulated Variable: the one factor that a scientist changes during an
experiment (pg. 19)
Autotroph: an organism that makes its own food (pg. 21)
Heterotroph: an organism that cannot make its own food (pg. 22)
Homeostasis: the maintenance of stable internal conditions despite changes in
the surroundings (pg. 23)
Section 2
Fossil: the trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock and other
substances (pg. 27)
Section 3
Classification: the process of grouping things based on their similarities (pg. 28)
Binomial Nomenclature: the naming system for organisms in which each
organism is given a two-part name- a genus name and a species name (pg. 30)
Genus: a classification grouping that consists of a number of similar, closely
related species (pg. 30)
Species: a group of similar organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring
in nature (pg. 30)
Evolution: the process by which species gradually change over time (pg. 34)
Taxonomic Key: a series of paired statements that describe the physical
characteristics of different organisms (pg. 36)
Section 4
Prokaryote: an organism whose cells lack a nucleus and some other cell
structures (pg. 41)
Nucleus: the dense area in an eukaryotic cell that contains nucleic acids, the
chemical instructions that direct the cell’s activities (pg. 41)
Eukaryote: an organism with cells that contain nuclei and other cell structures
(pg. 41)