What Is a Life Cycle?: Mechanism
≈ 24 minMechanism
Follow the mechanism step by step and distinguish what causes the change from what is merely observed.
This extension applies that lens specifically to What Is a Life Cycle?.
Every living thing goes through the same big journey. It starts (it is born or it hatches or it sprouts), it grows, it reproduces (it makes young of its own kind), and finally it dies.
A life cycle is the ordered set of stages a living thing passes through, from the start of its life to the point where it produces the next generation. We call it a cycle because the young then begin the very same stages — the pattern repeats, round and round, generation after generation.
Worked example — a chicken. An egg hatches into a chick. The chick grows into a hen. The hen lays eggs. Those eggs hatch into new chicks. The journey has arrived back where it began, so it is a cycle, not a straight line.
Natural Sciences — Grade 5 — Mechanism: Why do we call it a life cycle?
Natural Sciences — Grade 5 — Mechanism: The stage where a living thing makes young of its own kind is called ______.
Natural Sciences — Grade 5 — Mechanism: A sunflower's life cycle is listed as: seed → seedling → mature plant → flower (which makes new seeds). How many stages are listed here?
Name the original topic being extended by this mechanism lesson.
Which statement is the best evidence-led starting point for What Is a Life Cycle?: Mechanism?