ACTIVITY 2:
Unifying Themes in the Study of Life
A. DAD (Decode, Arrange, Describe)
Directions: Decode the given numbers to their corresponding
letters of the alphabet, then arrange the letters to reveal the
magic word related to Biology.
Lastly, describe the term revealed.
B. Name It
Directions: Name the unifying theme
illustrated below. Choose your answer
from words inside the box.
biological system reproduction and inheritance regulation
cell adaptation
interaction with the evolution
environment biology and society
energy and life
form and function
C. Match It
Directions: Match the given statements to its corresponding
unifying themes.
D. What a Beautiful Life!
Directions: Given the characteristics of life in the first column, answer the related
questions posted in the second column.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE QUESTIONS
What is the level of organization
of living organisms?
The biological levels of organization of living
things arranged from the simplest to most complex
Displays organization are: organelle, cells, tissues, organs,
organ systems, organisms, populations,
communities, ecosystem, and biosphere.
Why do organisms reproduce?
Organisms reproduce to continue the chain of life,
to pass on its genes which are acquired over
Ability to reproduce millennia. Reproduction is essentially a process by
which individuals produce new individuals of the
same kind. And this process is very important for
the existence of life on earth.
Why do organisms adapt?
Ability to adapt on changing All organisms need to adapt to their habitat to be
able to survive. This means adapting to be able to
environment survive the climatic conditions of the ecosystem,
predators, and other species that compete for the
same food and space.
In what way do living organisms
acquire energy?
Why is energy significant?
All living organisms need energy to grow and
reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond
Requires energy to their environments; metabolism is the set of the
processes that makes energy available for cellular
processes. Living organisms must take
in energy via food, nutrients, or sunlight in order
to carry out cellular processes.
How can we maintain
homeostasis?
Homeostasis is generally maintained by a negative
feedback loop that includes a stimulus, sensor,
Maintains homeostasis control center, and effector.
E. Connect Me
Directions: Show the connections of the given biotic and abiotic factors
written
inside the box through a concept map.
F. What’s the connection?
Biology also referred as Biological Science or Life Science deals
with the study of living organisms. It is divided into subdisciplines.
As a broad discipline, biologists use the term unifying themes
where the study is being anchored. The major unifying themes that
were mentioned include the cell theory as a description of living
systems, continuity of life as explained by the molecular basis of
inheritance, the interdependence of structure and function, the
diversity of life brought by evolution, unity of living systems as
explained by evolutionary conservations, and emergent properties
that arise from the organization of life.
Directions: Describe each unifying theme illustrated below. Give
details on how these themes serve as the foundation in the study of
biology.
irections: Using the illustration below, explain briefly the
interconnections of living things and their environment. State how
human being may value life.
The relationship between the living and non-living things forms an
ecosystem. The non- living things like water, air, soil and other are required
by the living organisms for leading their life cycle. The living things forms
the integral part of the natural cycling process of water, air and soil.
G. Picture It Out
Directions: Create a visual representation of each
theme. Write a sentence that will explain how
your picture is connected to the theme.
Unifying Themes Illustration/Explanation
1. Biological System A biological system, sometimes
simply referred to as system, is a
group of entities or organs that
work together to carry out a
particular task. It is a biological unit
of the body or of an organism.
2. Cellular Basis of Life All organisms are made of cells.
Multicellular organisms have a
hierarchical organisation of cells,
tissues, organs and organ systems
that work together to keep the cells
alive. To stay alive, cells need a
supply of energy and molecules for chemical reactions.
3. Interaction with its Human
Environmental Interactions can be
environment defined as interactions between the
human social system and the
ecosystem. Adaptive because the
4. Energy and Life all living
organisms require energy for both
survival and reproduction. Energy is the
ability to do work, where work is done
when a force moves an object. While
the sun provides energy for our entire planet, the
sun's energy must be transformed into more usable forms
for living organisms.
5. Form and Function Form and function in science refer to
the direct relationship between
the structure of a thing and the way
it functions. It is the form and
function of every part of a living thing
that allows it to survive; it is the form and function of every
component of an ecosystem that allows it to thrive.
6. Reproduction and Inheritance Sexual reproduction is the union
of male and female gametes to
form a fertilized egg, or zygote.
The resulting offspring inherit one
half of their traits from each
parent. The process where
haploid sex cells are created
from diploid parents is called meiosis, and it occurs only in
the reproductive organs.
7. Regulation Biological regulation is what allows
an organism to handle the effects
of a perturbation, modulating its
own constitutive dynamics in
response to particular changes in
internal and external conditions.
8. Adaptation Adaptation, in biology, the
process by which a species
becomes fitted to its
environment; it is the result of
natural selection's acting
upon heritable variation over
several generations.
9. Evolution Evolutionary biology is the
subfield of biology that
studies
the evolutionary processes
(natural selection, common
descent, speciation) that
produced the diversity of life
on Earth.
10. Biology and Society The Biology & Society major
is an interdisciplinary major
that allows students to
combine the study of
the biological sciences with
courses that explore the
social and ethical aspects of
modern biology.
H. Complete Me
Directions: The two additional unifying themes of Biology are:
“science benefits from a cooperative approach and diverse
viewpoints” and “scientists make observations and then form
and test hypotheses”. Using the template below, share your ideas
about the mentioned themes as you relate it to science,
technology and society.
SubjectTheme: scientists make observations and then
form and test hypotheses
My chosen word is scientist
First, I know that the scientific method involves making
observations and asking questions.
In addition, I know that Scientists form hypotheses based
on these observations and then develop controlled
experiments to collecting and analyze data.
Finally, I know that Using this data, they are able to
draw conclusions and form questions for
new scientific research.
Now, you know something that I know After
deciding to learn more about an observation or a set
of observations, scientists generally begin
an investigation by forming a hypothesis
I. What I Can Do
Directions:
“Covid-19 is one of the current problems that the world is
experiencing. It is an infectious disease caused by severe acute
respiratory syndrome which affects different people in different
ways. How do you think Biology can be used to solve this
problem? (Include also on your discussion on how life may be
valued.)
Make a creative presentation for your discussion.
Knowing that it has RNA in its genome helps us understand how we test
for the presence of coronavirus, In addition, we are able to look at
changes in the sequence in the viral genome and that’s enabling us to
track the spread of this virus around the globe. We can learn about how
the biology of the virus is changing and how it may be altering the way it
interacts with host cells, and also potentially different ways that we could
treat it. It’s part of an amazing open science effort with an unprecedented
level of information acquisition and information sharing among
researchers.
J. Additional Activities
1. Explain the quotation “Your body isn’t just a body, it’s
an ecosystem” by Steve Mills. You may present your
work through an essay or illustration.
An ecosystem is a community of living things. The l living
things in an ecosystem interact with each other and with the
non-living things around them. That's why were an
ecosystem.Our human body is an ecosystem
2. Explain how Biology can be studied from a
microscopic approach to global approach. (Indicate
the unifying themes where the study of Biology is being
anchored).
When researching and learning an individual organism,
a biologist could dissect and learn about the cell and its
organelles, the tissues that the cells are made up of, the
organs and what organ system they belong to, and the
whole organism itself. Researchers can approach biology
from the tiniest to the largest, and everything in between.
For instance, an ecologist may be able to research about
the population of people, the population's community, and
the community's ecosystem, and as well as the ecosystem's
part in the biosphere.
