Life Science for Junior High School Student

Grade 7 Reporting

1. Life Science Grade 7

2. What is Life Science Life science is an enormous field of study that examines every living thing on earth. From bacteria to begonias to beluga whales, life sciences aim to learn everything about life on this planet.

3. What is Life Science As the name might suggest, life science studies life in all its forms, past and present. This can include plants, animals, viruses and bacteria, single-celled organisms, and even cells. Life sciences study the biology of how these organisms live, which is why you may hear this group of specialties referred to as biology.

4. As you might expect, with an estimated  8.7 million species  of animals, about 400,000 species of plants, and countless species of bacteria and viruses, there are a lot of different forms of life you can study. Many life science researchers specialize in one class or organism, and some specialties such as zoology have even more subspecialties. There are more than thirty different branches of life sciences, but we’ll review some of the major branches here.

5. Ecology Ecology looks at the interactions between organisms and their environment. This can include topics like the food chain, parasitic and beneficial relationships, and relationships within species. Ecology also examines things like biodiversity, organism population numbers, and distribution of those organisms. In effect, ecology aims to get an overall picture of the way ecosystems work. These systems are complex, dynamic webs of life that are constantly shifting and maintaining a delicate balance without which the system would collapse. This ecosystem could be as large as an entire rainforest or as small as a pond in Minnesota.

6. Botany Botany studies is a branch of biology (pun intended) that looks at plants. Everything from lichens, grass, and other groundcovers to the towering redwoods fall under the realm of botany. It may also include fungi and algae, which differ from other varieties of plants. Botany is one of those subclasses of biology that has subdivisions of its own. Some scientists focus on plant biochemistry, while others look at plant ecology, a branch that sits somewhere between botany and ecology. Additional subdivisions include plant genetics, evolution, physiology, and anatomy and morphology.

7. Zoology Whereas botany focuses on the plant kingdom, zoology looks at the animal kingdom. It looks at characteristics of different animals, including their behavior, breeding, migration patterns, habitats, and more. It also works to identify new species; of the estimated 8.7 million animal species on earth, we only know about 1.2 million species. As with ecology and botany, zoology crosses over with several other disciplines, including paleontology, entomology, and genetics. Different zoologists focus on different types of animals, including birds, reptiles, mammals, fish, and more. There are more than a half-dozen subfields of zoology.

8. Entomology Entomology is the study of all the creepy crawly things in the world. This field officially studies insects, but it may also examine arachnids, myriapods, worms, snails, and slugs. This could be considered a branch of zoology since insects technically fall within the animal kingdom. Of the 1.2 million species we know about, insects account for  nearly 900,000 species . They date back at least 400 million years (far older than the oldest dinosaurs) and are found in nearly every ecosystem on Earth.

9. Microbiology Microbiology looks at some of the smallest of all living beings – single-celled organisms or small cell colonies. This can include bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other tiny organisms that live all around and inside us. Historically, microbiology has been one of the hardest fields to pin down because getting a clear image of the subjects has been so hard. For example, viruses have both fallen under and been expelled from the field of microbiology. It’s hard to nail down a specific  definition of life , and viruses are one of those things that like to play jump rope with that line. And that’s to say nothing of the  99 percent of microorganisms  that can’t be observed using traditional methods.

10. Cell Biology Cell biology goes yet smaller than microbiology, taking a look at the living systems that exist within individual cells. That’s right; even the cells that make up your body have their own tiny ecosystems. Remember learning in ninth-grade biology that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell? Cell biology looks at the life processes of individual cells, including metabolic processes, reproduction, signaling pathways, and the chemical composition of the cell. This gives us a better idea of how life on a larger scale works. It’s especially important in fields like genetics and pharmacology.

11. Paleontology Paleontology looks at life that isn’t, well, alive anymore. Specifically, it studies dinosaurs and how they may have lived. It is based around the fossil record and the clues we can glean from those preserved remains. Paleontology is somewhat on the outskirts of biology, bumping up against geology. But while it does include a close study of different rocks, paleontology aims to use those rocks as a way to reconstruct a record of life that once existed on this planet. Paleontologists try to use dinosaur fossils to reverse-engineer how they lived, what they looked like, and even how they died.

12. Genetics Although the study of DNA and the genome is relatively new, genetics is a field that traces all the way back to Gregor Mendel and his pea plants. It looks at how traits are passed down and how they adapt to suit the environment. Only in recent years have we come to understand exactly how that genetic inheritance happens. With the discovery of DNA, genetics has expanded to include traits that we only believe may be genetically linked. Geneticists are writing  life science articles  exploring whether traits like addiction, cancer, talent, and other such things may be passed down genetically and how. In the future, we may even see genetic modifications that could prevent cancer.

13. Physiology Whereas botany and zoology look at organisms as being within their environments, physiology focuses on how those beings stay alive. This includes organ systems, organs, cells, and molecules that run the chemical processes that support life. Physiology sees you not as a person interacting with the world around you or with a complex mental life, but as an intricate dance of chemical interactions that work to keep you alive. Physiology can look at any of the forms of life we’ve discussed. Plant, animal, human, cellular, and microbial physiology are all subsets of this field of study. Physiology is also intimately tied to epidemiology and pharmacology.