Subscribe

6th grade · Science · Unit 16 of 17

Kinds of Organisms

Prokaryotes and eukaryotes, one cell or many, autotrophs and heterotrophs, and variation.

What your child practices

Practices comparing prokaryotic and eukaryotic, unicellular and multicellular, and autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms, and how variation within a population can help or hurt survival when the environment changes.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.13(B); 6.13(C) · basic characteristics of organisms, and how variation in a population affects survival

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Prokaryotes, like bacteria, have no nucleus. Eukaryotes have a nucleus.
  2. Unicellular organisms have one cell, like an amoeba. Multicellular ones have many.
  3. Autotrophs make their own food, like plants. Heterotrophs eat other things.
  4. Plants are eukaryotic, multicellular and autotrophic.

Example: A deer eats grass. Is it an autotroph or a heterotroph? Autotrophs make their own food. A deer gets food by eating. Answer: heterotroph

Kinds of Organisms in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 16 of 17 in 6th grade Science, after Earth's Spheres & Layers and before The Rock Cycle.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which is an autotroph?

    • A grasshopper
    • A mushroom
    • A bluebonnet plant
    • A coyote

  2. Question 2

    An organism made of many cells is…

    • multicellular
    • a bacterium
    • unicellular
    • a prokaryote

  3. Question 3

    Plants are eukaryotic, multicellular and…

    • prokaryotic
    • heterotrophic
    • unicellular
    • autotrophic

  4. Question 4

    A cell with no nucleus is…

    • multicellular
    • eukaryotic
    • prokaryotic
    • a plant cell

  5. Question 5

    Which is unicellular?

    • An amoeba
    • A dog
    • An oak tree
    • A mushroom

  6. Question 6

    Which pair describes a bacterium?

    • Prokaryotic and unicellular
    • Eukaryotic and autotrophic only
    • Prokaryotic and multicellular
    • Eukaryotic and multicellular

More 6th grade