Science 1 - Living Systems Videos

Duration: 12:19

Synopsis: This video could allow for many different ways by which you can play a game with your students. Essentially, this video just presents you with examples, and then leaves about a five-second span of time to guess, and then shows what it defines as the answer. The only issue is that some of the answers are arguably wrong. For example, it defines a hamburger as being "non-living," even though the hamburger is illustrated with beef, lettuce, and a tomato. What this does allow for in class is some great discussion about why this might be defined as "non-living." Most of the answers are without any need for clarification/correction, but there are a few more like the hamburger.

Duration: 8:11

Synopsis: The video titled "Living and Non-living Things for Kids" by Homeschool Pop is an engaging educational resource designed to help young learners distinguish between living and nonliving things. It employs colorful animations, clear explanations, and interactive elements to make the learning experience enjoyable and effective. This video uses some interesting analogy to robotic dogs and real dogs, and discusses why one is living and one is nonliving. This video could also serve as a good place to talk about how the words "nonliving" and "non-living" are the same, but that in science we generally prefer the former, but some people use the latter.

Duration: 7:06

Synopsis: Though this video does have the exact same title as the one above, one key piece in this video that sets it apaer from any of the other videos in this collection is that it discusses the idea that the category "living things" also includes organisms that were once alive that are now dead. It makes it clear that to belong to the category "non-living," that an object needs to have always been non-living. This clarification, that something like a fallen tree is still a living thing even if it is not alive, is an important idea for students to understand in this unit.

Duration: 5:46

Synopsis: The video titled "What Are Non Living Things?" (The Dr Binocs Show) is an educational resource designed to teach young learners about nonliving things in an engaging and accessible manner. The video explains that nonliving things are objects that do not exhibit characteristics of life, such as growth, reproduction, or response to stimuli. Now, along the line of "nonliving" vs. "non-living" as the spelling, Dr.Binocs makes this even more confusing by using both of them throughout the video!

Duration: 4:51

Synopsis: The video titled "What Makes Something 'Alive'? | Biology for Kids" is an educational resource designed to help children understand the fundamental characteristics that distinguish living things from nonliving ones. The video explains that living things are organisms that exhibit specific characteristics such as growth, reproduction, response to stimuli, and the need for energy. 

Duration: 4:53

Synopsis: Though this video only has four of the five basic needs of animals (he leaves out reproduction), it does a great job of really creating context for each of the basic needs by relating it to how beavers meet all of their needs (with the exception of reproduction). This focus on beavers allows for students to make as association with evidence that they have seen of beavers meeting their needs such as a beaver lodge or tree stumps that show evidence of the tree being removed by beavers.