Biology is, very simply, the study of living things. Living things include both the visible world of plants and animals, as well as the invisible world of bacteria and viruses. There are several characteristics that living things have in common: - Living things are made of cells. - Living things obtain & use energy. - Living things grow & develop. - Living things reproduce. - Living things respond to their environment. - Living things adapt to their environment.
To study life and all that it entails, biologists use a scientific process, often referred to as the Scientific Method. This process is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments. The basic steps, although they do not have to eb completed in the exact order, are: - Ask a Question. - Do Background Research. - Develop a Hypothesis. - Perform an Experiment. - Analyze Your Data. - Draw Your Conclusion. - Communicate Your Results. It is important for the experiment to be a fair test, which means only one variable is changed at a time and all other conditions are kept the same.