Generations of biology students have complained about having to learn about plants. “They’re boring!” is a common refrain. We can summarize student reasoning about why plants are boring with the following phrase:

Plants just sit there, doing nothing.

Questions

1. List three characteristics of living things.
2. Choose two of the items on the list and explain how plants demonstrate each of these characteristics.
3. Using your answers to questions 1 and 2, explain why the statement in bold sounds right, but isn’t.